


Red Retribution

by February_Eight



Series: Red Retribution [1]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alien Biology, Bribery, Hemospectrum Shift, M/M, Multi, POV First Person, Power Play, Psychological Conditioning, Quadrant Confusion, Quadrant Vacillation, Rape/Non-con References, Sexual Slavery, Unreliable Narrator
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-01-01
Updated: 2013-07-05
Packaged: 2017-11-23 06:51:42
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 8
Words: 25,410
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/619290
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/February_Eight/pseuds/February_Eight
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A night out practicing skateboarding doesn’t quite go as planned when Mituna finds himself alone and cornered by Cronus.</p><p>Tags: Mituna, Cronus, Character-development, Unreliable POV, non-con/rape, male x male, sex acts, alien biology, quadrant confusion, mild violence, slight AU (non-game), blackmail, Kankri, drug usage (sopor)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Invasive

**Author's Note:**

> Slightly AU as I don’t mention the game, or The Scratch deaths or dream bubbles, that is purposely left vague. I tried to write with the typing quirks, but it’s kinda hard and messes with the flow of my writing, so I ditched it :P

\--CRASH--  
  
“OWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWWWWW”  
  
After a couple of long minutes of lying winded on your front in the dirt, you wearily raise your head. Your vision swims momentarily, but you blink hard and the multiple images before your eyes eventually fuse back into single, solid objects. You move yourself gingerly but aside the usual winding from a failed skate trick resulting in a flat out face-down sprawl, nothing seems to be broken. A stream of muttered curses spill from your lips as you start to get to your knees to regain your feet, but a shadow falls over you and blocks out the bright light of the moon and you fall silent. Then a pair of black leather biker boots approach and stop in front of you.  
  
“Nice evening for a little trip, eh?” comes an amused voice from above, and then an outstretched hand appears in front of you. Twitching with agitation, you grasp it and are hauled, non too gently, to your feet. Cronus grins at you as you wobble a bit while you re-adjust your skewed helmet. He stands casually watching, and he's holding your skateboard under the other arm. “That's some funny shit, you should incorporate that into your standard daily comedy routine”.  
  
'Go sthtick your head up your waste chuute.' You snarl defensively, while stumbling unsteadily towards him and reaching for your skateboard. He backs effortlessly away from your clumsy grab, still grinning. He is so fucking annoying. He continues to back up, dodging this way and that, holding out the board then whipping it away again when you try to take it.  
  
“Cheap, greasthy... nooksniffing... grubfucker, give it back. SHIT!”  
  
“Awwww don't be like that, pal” Cronus fakes a hurt look, while still holding the board out of reach. He is taller than you and you can't even grab at the board now. “I'm just playin’ with ya…”  
  
“FUUUUUUUUUUCKTTHHHHHHHHPPPPPPPTHHHH”  
  
“Okay okay, don't go off into another one of your little hysterical freak-out fits”. He drops the board into your outstretched arms and you immediately hug it close to your chest, where he can't get at it again. “Last thing I need is any more shit from Meenah. Or Latula gettin' on my case for ‘picking on you‘”. He makes that stupid quotation marks gesture with his fingers at those words.  
  
"And anyways… the thing you got going with Latula... Sure it’s cute and all but, well, she just feels sorry for you. It’s just pity with nothing runnin’ deeper than that, feelings wise. She’s pretty cool and savvy really and you... Well, you’re just you aren’t you?"  
  
You fiddle absently with the skateboard in your arms. You want to be as cool as Latula some day. She said your skateboarding was definitely getting better... You are definitely staying on it a little longer every time anyway.  
  
"She wasn’t nearly so protective before that shit hit the fan, we used to have a decent thing going on right? Before I started copping all this aggravation for allegedly bullying you. Its not my fault yer always fallin’ on your ass and babbling like an idiot, I’m just making simple observations."  
  
You cant help but twitch nervously. At the mention of Latula you glance around hoping to spot her, but Cronus has craftily managed to lead you away from the open area with his stupid game, and into this more secluded one in amongst the nearby vegetation. Of course this concept only really hovers at the edge of your muddled understanding of the situation and so you continue to do nothing as Cronus leans in, other than flinch with surprise as you back away from him again and feel the solid press of a tree trunk suddenly against your back. You feel a stream of panicked nonsense rise unchecked to your lips at the sudden wash of intense claustrophobia.  
  
“Get the FUKTHH away, I'll jam thisth board stho far up your WASTECHUTE it comesth out of your PROTEINCHUUUTE FSTHHHHHH!”  
  
"Come on Mit, chill yer fuckin’ little yellow boots already, we're just hanging out, getting a breather away from the rabble, musing on life and love and past good times, like we used to..."  
  
You sorta sense that, even before when you were in full of control of your faculties, that totally never used to happen.  
  
"But we're getting off topic. I can do pity too, the type that’s mutually beneficial to the pair of us and not like your pointless matespritship" Cronus' voice dips to what he probably thinks is a suggestive whisper but it scares the shit out of you all the same.  
  
“CAN WE LEAVE THISTH PLACE... I DON'T LIKE IT HERE”  
  
"Can't ya just hear me out, I’ve only brought you over this way a bit so we can have a proper heartfelt talk without any random morons or meddlers butting in on a special moment between bros" He pats your shoulder in a sort of friendly way, but then leaves his hand there, which irritates you instantly.  
  
"We are not having a thhpecial moment YOU FISTHHBRAINED CHUCKLEFUCK"  
  
"I don’t think you're trying hard enough to see the sense in where I’m coming from, even with that cluttered wriggler's toy box of a brain you keep in that dumb head of yours."  
  
“PLEASE STOP TOUCHING ME" The weight of Cronus's hand on your shoulder is becoming increasingly unbearable.  
  
Its always like this, any line of rational thought you clutch hold of and try to follow to a suitable conclusion just seems to split off into several threads that somehow just end up in a tangled mess the more you try to grasp at them. You know your head doesn’t work right, like everyone else’s, not any more.  
  
Why is it impossible to articulate to Cronus exactly how he's upsetting you. But you don't really even know the reason why yourself. Its more like, a discomforting vibe you are able to feel coming off him even while more logical reasoning is beyond your damaged mind.  
  
"There's things you're supposed to do in a matespritship that I know you gotta be missing out on. Bet you wouldn’t be anywhere near as twitchy if you got your frustration out occasionally. I can feel just through your shoulder how fuckin’ tense you are..."  
  
"Because you're touching me..." you stammer, but Cronus continues like he didn't hear.  
  
"You're so fucking damaged that you probably aren’t even aware of what you're missing out on, you poor dumb fuck. Latula could at least take care of you properly. I don't wanna knock Kurloz's place in this but, Latula ain't much more than a moirail to you really, huh?"  
  
A long hard shiver runs down the whole length of your spine. Cronus's face is so close you can feel the movement of his breath across your skin, and the intensity of his stare is not in the least bit dulled by the plastic visor of your helmet as his eyes lock onto yours.  
  
"Do you know what you need? Are you at least gonna give me some sort of semi coherent response. Is any of what I’m saying getting past that helmet of yours and sinking into the soggy brain sponge inside?"  
  
You open your mouth, but when nothing comes out, nonsense or otherwise, you shut it again, your fangs closing together with an audible click. Why wont Cronus just go away and bother someone else?  
  
"I could talk for hours like this in the simplest terms possible that even fuckin’ wigglers would understand and we still wouldn't be getting any closer to an understanding." That line sounds exasperated, but then his tone turns as oily as his slicked back hair. "Why don't you just let me... show you what I'm getting at."  
  
His hand trails down your shoulder and grasps you just a little too tightly round your upper arm as he tries to pull you in for what in his mind is probably a cool, rough and roguish smooch. Of course, you drop your skateboard and completely freak out.  
  
Your high pitched stream of terrified babble is cut off abruptly as Cronus presses his hand over your mouth and grabs for the hand you are flailing at him to push him back, for a second his own expression as panicked as yours must be, but after several long tense moments in which no ones comes to check on the commotion, his expression hardens again.  
  
"Fuck sake Mit, can’t you just shut your stupid psychobabble off for just five fucking minutes and just listen to me. I’m not gonna hurt ya, unless you keep bursting out with shit like that, just shut the fuck up and let me make you feel good."  
  
His grip on your wrist is relentless and grinds your bones together painfully as you reflexively try to pull it away from him, and you can already feel pathetic tears of frightened frustration starting to well up in the corners of your eyes. He's never treated you as badly as this before, what are you doing so wrong to make him this angry? You aren’t doing anything other than try to get away from him while he rambles on and on. You try harder to override the panic and fortunately, your struggling limbs follow suit and eventually fall still. Cronus still looks like his attention is only half on you and half on something else, he keeps glancing around. He releases your wrist at least and the pain abates, but instead he draws himself bodily closer to you and slips that arm around your waist. Simultaneously you feel the need to escape his advances again but also... the close press of his body, its reassuring solidarity, is sort of... comforting? If you closed your eyes and let your mind drift it could easily be Kurloz instead, soothing away one of your more manic episodes. Or Latula, who would welcome you into her recuperacoon when the bad dreams became so intense that you thought the tremors might actually shake your body apart, and she would just hold you as long as it took for them to pass. At these thoughts you feel yourself relax against Cronus a little, and he tentatively removes his hand from your mouth.  
  
"I'm sorry…" your voice sounds tiny and distant even to your own ears, but Cronus nods and you feel him press his forehead against the top of your helmet.  
  
"You never make things easy, you didn't before and now you have a whole new angle on being difficult with me" he sighs, and although his words are harsh, his tone sounds as lost and unsure as you feel.  
  
"I'm... Sorry" you try again, and suddenly Cronus has both his arms around you and is embracing you more firmly and somehow, this physical contact is genuine, not as creepy, and it is not sending you into a blind panic this time. Somehow you don't even freak out when he slides his palm up your cheek and then up the side of your helmet, then grasps it and gently eases it off. This would usually be seizure-type panic inducing but everything around you is so quiet and still, and you don't feel in any danger of falling over while Cronus has you in his arms. You gaze distantly at his face but its beyond your comprehension to read the tumultuous thoughts behind his pained expression. You don’t share his pain at seeing your confused, blank eyes, the deep and painful looking scarring that runs in erratic lines from around your eyes and up your forehead into your messy hairline. The way that, momentarily caught up in your own fragmented thoughts, you don't even notice that your lips have slackened and that you are drooling slightly out of one side of your mouth. All of these things, and yet to him, your face is still enviously beautiful despite the cruel mark of tragedy.  
  
"Why wouldn't you just accept me before... before this had to happen. You don't even realise how much I’ve always wanted you in the flushed quadrant. I dunno if before I wasn’t good enough for you but, the way you are now, maybe I could look out for you if you'd let me" He can't help wiping away the thin saliva track on your chin with his thumb. "Hell, I couldn’t even really say these kinda things to you so directly before..." With your chin still resting between his thumb and fingers, he tilts your head back to look up at him more directly, and suddenly it feels like you may have had a brief black out and missed something, because his lips are pressed against yours before you even fully register his forward movement.  
  
Time seems to slow to a crawl. The technique of a proper sloppy make-out has been lost to you for so long that you just find yourself frozen rigidly still, outside of clenching and unclenching your fists reflexively, unsure of a reaction to make as Cronus deepens the kiss. But deep inside the core of your frozen body something is happening, some odd feeling, something like increasing warmth although the air amongst the dim foliage seems as cool and still as before  
  
His hands slide down your back as he leans into you a little more, and you can feel that his exploring touch is edging towards lightly squeezing your rear through the thin fabric of your pants. Part of your fuddled brain hits the alarm button at this, but the growing heat in your body rapidly smothers it down to the vaguest feeling of uneasiness.  
  
"You know, you can hold me too if you want..." Cronus whispers against your shoulder. You manage to ease open your balled fists' and raise your arms haltingly. You grasp for the feel of fabric, and cling onto the sides of his shirt.  
  
"Yeah... You're getting it now." Cronus sounds pretty pleased with you, and you feel yourself crack a slight, awkward grin at the unusual praise. He ruffles your mussed hair playfully, but you decline to try and touch his meticulously waxed quiff. He kisses you again and it feels good. You even try to copy the thing he's doing with his tongue.  
  
The slight yellow flush that has been building across your cheeks drains rapidly with fresh anxiety however, as your bulge tries to unsheathe itself in the restricted crotch area of your pants. What did you do make that happen... It tends to only really do this when you are dozing lightly just before nightfall, and sometimes before you wake up or maybe just after, you occasionally have... accidents. Latula laughs it off dismissively and dresses you in fresh clothes. She doesn’t linger over the process, and you wish that maybe she would touch your bare skin just a bit longer...  
  
Cronus is lightly stroking your skin now, where his hands have dipped under hem of your tee-shirt and his fingers trace the line of your spine upwards, making you shiver. He is also lightly kissing, and sometimes nipping, the curve of your neck between your shoulder and jaw.  
  
"Feelin’ anything yet Mit?" His low, husky tone sounds expectant.  
  
"What am I thupposthed to be feeling..." You murmur.  
  
Cronus's grin falters, but then he presses himself close, and very firmly and purposely presses his groin against yours. The gasp that the pressure forces from you is as telling an indication as the obvious fullness in the front of your pants.  
  
"Someone is enjoying himself just a little bit."  
  
"NO!" You snap out reflexively. Agreeing with anything Cronus says is always a bad thing.  
  
"I think you are" he croons almost mockingly, and you flinch as he boldly reaches down between your bodies and presses the flat of his palm firmly against your crotch, against the swollen flesh slightly tenting the thin fabric of your pants. You move away from his touch a little with uncertainty.  
  
"NO…"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"NO NO NO NO NO NO NO"  
  
"Oh come on Mit, I thought we'd established that we were through with playing games" exasperation has crept back into the tone that had softened up before.  
  
“No GAMES YOU fuckinth chum...BUCKET... NO!”  
  
"Mit, don’t get like that... Please... " His voice is hardening again. You definitely want away from him now. You press your hands against his chest and try to push him back, while also attempting to duck out from between him and the tree. It’s a move that you can see has annoyed him immensely when he resists the attempt by pressing you back hard against the trunk, and also grinds his groin hard against yours, letting you know in no uncertain terms that he is as aroused as he has found you to be.  
  
"Right, that’s it! Get back here you fuckin’ little bulge tease" Cronus snarls nastily  
  
This time when he forces a kiss against your lips, you bite him. Hard. Blood blossoms quickly out of the wound and you taste the sharp tang of it before he pulls back with a surprised jerk. Not before leaving a vivid purple smear on your lips which he is staring at as if he can't believe you just bit him. If it could be said that a contentiously red atmosphere was skimming over earlier proceedings, the air has now almost defiantly turned black. The next attempt you make to thrash out of his grip he wordlessly spins you around to face away from him, pulls one arm up behind you in a painful lock and forces you firmly against the rough bark.  
  
He is done with your bullshit now. This much is obvious from the way he unceremoniously shoves his hand down the inside front of your pants and grips your still engorged bulge and squeezes hard. A high pitched squeal escapes you at the sudden molestation, which sends a rush of... something... to that warm feeling from before, that hasn’t entirely gone out despite the rising tide of panic.  
  
"I'm not letting you leave me like this, you little piss blood. Your body wants this even if your stupid dull brain is a thousand miles behind it. Just shut the fuck up, don’t make me have to shut you up myself." His voice is cold and sharp as broken ice and you actually fall mute just as he commands.  
  
With one arm still twisted firmly behind your back, you use your free arm to dig your fingers into the tree bark for support as Cronus's brutal grip eases into a firm but comfortable hold, and he starts to slide his hand slowly towards the tip of your bulge, and then bring it back again towards the base, then up again. Repeating a sliding, stroking motion on your swollen flesh that seems to be leaching the strength from your trembling legs and sucking it into the warm, churning feeling inside that is spreading steadily into your whole groin area. Cronus's breath is hot against your ear, and then you feel his lips against the delicate upper point of it before he sinks his teeth in and draws blood, payback for the injury to his lip. A small whimper escapes despite your resolve to keep quiet. Cronus breathes out heavily and presses his bulge against your backside, the taste of your own blood on his tongue only making his need more urgent.  
  
“Just keep still like that Mit, you're doing fine” His reassurance still sounds slimy to your own ears. He's withdrawn his hand from your pants, and you see the slightest hint of faint yellow liquid slicked across his fingers. You sort of start to sag with relief of anticipated release until those fingers deftly tweak open the buttons on the front of your pants, and then he grips the waistband and pushes them down roughly, lifting one booted foot to push them all the way down to your ankles.  
  
“DON’T TAKE MY CLOTHETHS OFF... WHY ARE YOU TAKING MY CLOTHETHS OFF?!”  
  
“I said I didn’t want to hear any more babblin’ out of you” Cronus retorts testily.  
  
“WHAT IF I CANT GET THEM BACK ON AGAIN”  
  
“I'll sort it out, just keep your idiot voice down” He grips the slick, plump length of your bulge again, in full view to your own eyes now and indeed anyone else who might happen to wander past. Your stomach twists despite the heat inside. You don't really want anyone to see Cronus doing weird things to you. But at least they would maybe be able to stop him doing it. You screw your eyes closed and try to call out to Latula inside your head, didn't that used to work at one time? All you gain in response to your efforts is a sudden sharp pain which shoots through your head and makes you twitch.  
  
Cronus releases your arm from the aching position he was holding it in against your back and you let it drop limply by your side, all strained muscles and cramps. His freed up hand creeps down the side of your trembling thigh, and inwards, making a light exploratory trail just past the throbbing base of your erect bulge and suddenly sliding lightly across a place under there that seems to be slick with fluid from somewhere. It must be leaking from the end of your bulge like it does when you have those accidents.  
  
Then you cry out loudly with surprise when Cronus slips two of his fingers through that slick area and up into your body.  
  
“Your nook is absolutely dripping wet, Mitty' Cronus whispers from behind you 'You couldn’t be more ready for this, you have to let me pail you.”  
  
His words don't register any meaning at all in your fizzing brain as your mouth hangs open, wordlessly focused on the completely alien feeling of those digits flexing experimentally inside that place below your bulge that hasn’t ever felt like this before, or at least not that you can remember. You shift your stance uncomfortably as he spreads his two fingers apart inside and it hurts a little. His other hand squeezes your bulge a little more firmly than before, and your body seems to squeeze his fingers in response without you really being conscious of how you are doing it. It doesn’t feel all that unpleasant. But then Cronus withdraws his touch from your nook.  
  
“Spread your legs a bit more”. He's messing around with something back there behind you, he keeps bumping your ass clumsily with the back of his hand. Then without warning he pushes you hard against the tree again, and you only have a moment or two to feel slick, blunt warmth slide across that entrance to your body before Cronus grips your hips hard and thrusts his own swollen bulge up into your nook.  
  
He goes far too roughly into a body that has never previously experienced being the passive partner of a pailing union. Your scream is deafening but short lived, as Cronus recovers from being scared half to death in time to clap his hand over your mouth once more. He was somewhat slow to react to your outburst, from the unexpected pressure of your untried tightness around his substantial girth, the sensation far more intense that he had been prepared for in his eagerness to get going. The pain for you though was enough to make your knees buckle, and you drop out of Cronus' grasp into a semi swooning collapse on the grass. Cronus stands above you looking momentarily stupefied by your reaction and faintly ridiculous with his bulge jutting out from the open front of his jeans, at least until your muddled brain reconnects with the desire of your body to escape the threat of further pain. As you let out a distressed wail and attempt to get clumsily back to your feet despite your pants being hopelessly twisted around your ankles, he regains his senses and pushes you back down into the grass. You splutter incoherently at him as he pulls off your left boot and drags that leg completely clear of the tangle of fabric trapping them together, spreading your thighs as you lie helplessly pinned on your back and stuffing his bulge back into you again. A helpless flood of yellow tinged tears overflow your eyes this time as Cronus smothers your distressed cries for help and pins your flailing limbs with more ease that he did when you were both stood up, as he now has his greater height and superior body weight on his side in this position. He's burning with aching need and starts to thrust properly into you now, his brow creased with concentration and his mouth just a little too down turned for someone who should be enjoying the pleasure of physical union. Things aren’t entirely going how the inexperienced troll had planned out in his head on beginning his red solicitation. Unknown to you, he momentarily screws his eyes shut against the threat of shedding tears himself.  
  
“Please don't cry Mit.” His voice comes out in an oddly raw croak. “It's getting better now, right? I'm trying to do you a favour…” It’s not at all obvious whether its you or himself he is attempting to reassure.  
  
However, it does feel like it is getting easier. Your combined lubricating fluids are fulfilling their intended purpose, even if they are gradually mixing from distinct shades of purple and yellow to an unappealing brownish hue. When you figure out that no amount of struggling is going to get him to leave you alone, you simply allow yourself to go limp, and that also makes the ache of penetration less intense. The pain and fright was enough to lose you your full erection, but it hasn't yet retracted back into your body. Cronus takes a risk at removing his hand from over your mouth and trails it down your neck, down your heaving chest, and gently takes your bulge between his fingers and strokes lightly.  
  
"Come on now, I'm not gonna get off until you do too. You gotta help me make this work." He stops his moving against you but doesn’t pull out, instead he leans in and presses his cheek against your tear streaked one, and squeezes your length firmly. Your body tenses up again a little, and you feel your nook clenching around Cronus. His hips are pressed tight against you, splitting you wide with the thickest part of his shaft. Impaled and held down by the heated, immovable mass of his body, with his tongue tracing gently down the angle of your jaw. Your heart hammers loudly in your chest, and fresh arousal sends blood pulsing into your bulge.  
  
"That’s it..." he breathes, squeezing and rubbing your bulge as it warms and expands in his grip. He shifts his hips a little, grinds against you slowly where you are joined, and you let out a pathetic mewl and throw your arms up and around his neck, gripping onto the material of his shirt once more, clinging to him, demanding reassurance. "I'll bring you off first".  
  
You squirm at the multiple sensations assaulting your body, playing your raw nerves into a new symphony of overwhelming experience. Cronus alternates between rough firm  
strokes and achingly slow, smooth ones. You find yourself arching your hips in response, and moan when he moves against you shallowly and rhythmically, attempting to stimulate and not hurt you anymore.  
  
"You're doing great Mituna, it feels so good. This is what matesprits do, they make each other feel good like this. I just want to satisfy you."  
  
But he isn’t really your matesprit...  
  
“FFUCKTHH…” is the only harsh utterance you make, digging your nails harder into Cronus' shirt and even raking them across the flesh of his neck, drawing shallow tracks of blood as he gasps at the slight stinging pain, and pounds against you harder. Your bulge feels impossibly swollen and twitches in his grasp, some kind of strange pressure is building within you and your whole groin area, wanting out, with increasing urgency.  
  
“I think... THAT THING ITHS GOING TO HAPPEN?!”  Instinct forces another rasping word from your lips. 'P... PAIL?'  
  
"Sshhh, no pails, we don't need them. Just let go" Cronus whispers against your ear. "You can do it over yourself, and I'm going to fill you up instead, like the gorgeous, sordid little receptacle that you are." his voice is suddenly filled with wicked amusement at the depravity of what you are about to do together.  
  
You strain towards the tantalising peak of the building pleasure, the crest of the wave looms ready to crash down around you as you writhe in the grass. Cronus yanks your shirt roughly up to your neck exposing your thin, heaving chest and pins you with one strong hand on your shoulder as long spasms wrack your body. An unexpectedly guttural and animalistic snarl rushes from between your clenched fangs and turns into a long low hiss, as your hips jerk sharply upwards and warm liquid spatters up across your exposed chest. The seatroll’s grip stays firm around you, teasing out the tremors from your body along with the last weak gushes of genetic material, and giving a low groan of pleasure himself as your inner muscles contract around his bulge still throbbing inside. He gives you as much time to recover as he can hold out for, but his own orgasm is obviously close. You cry out sharply with sensitivity as he roughly grabs your ass, hitches your body up and into his groin, and pushes your thighs open and back against your sticky chest, the penetration running excruciatingly deep.  
  
“Fuck, that's tight... again... fuck Mit…” Cronus is gasping, his cheeks flushing a little purple now, and his fingers dig into your thighs as he moves hard and fast as his chases his own release. “Gonna... Pail inside you... Fff... Ahhh”  
  
You stare with a kind of revered terror as a look of almost pained, intense euphoria crosses his face and he finally clutches you hard enough to carve tiny crescents into your skin with his nails, his hips pressed tight against you and his bulge spasming rhythmically as he pumps his own load of genetic slurry inside.  
  
He seems somewhat overcome by it, as he releases your legs, which splay limply open, and leans in over you only just supported by his shaking arms on either side of your prone torso. There isn’t a single sound to be heard outside of your combined laboured breaths. You gaze wordlessly into each others eyes.  
  
His crotch is smeared with both vague hints of yellow, and more fresh streaks of violet purple as he withdraws his retracting bulge from your soaked nook, the extraction causing some of the liquid to stream out and run unpleasantly down between your butt cheeks, and you squirm because it tickles a little. He tucks himself hastily away enough, but inspects you critically with a worried look.  
  
“Shit, you’re a mess. A hot mess, but still a total mess. We better get you back to your hive before anyone sees you."  
  
You look at him, dazed and quizzical.  
  
“But I'm meeting Tula here”. That snaps Cronus to attention.  
  
“Fuck... What??” He splutters.  
  
“We're goin' sthkating. I'm meeting her here”.  
  
"FUUUUUCK" Without a second's hesitation he whips off his tee-shirt, yanks you upright and starts swiping madly at your chest and groin with it, the slurry staining deeply into the white material. "Why the fuck didn't you SAY THAT BEFORE!"  
  
"Didn't give me chance..." you mutter sullenly as he scrubs. "Tula cleanths it up anyway."  
  
"If she sees this she will KILL me! Shit... Don't you dare tell her about this either, you dumb fuck. Or that scary voodoo motherfucker. You clean yourself better the minute you are alone again, get me?"  
  
He gets up and you are yanked to you feet. You stand shakily, clutching one of his shoulders as he kneels in front of you, wiping up the goo that trickles down from your nook and runs down the insides of your thighs. He rubs the shirt just a little too roughly over your sheath, your bulge has only just retracted and feels awfully sensitive still. He pulls your pants back up and fastens them and is just putting the boot back on that he pulled off when his fins flatten in fear at a voice.  
  
"Tuna babe, you here? Where are ya? Latula's call drifts through the still night air, she can't be far from the bridge where you like to practice some of your skate tricks. Well, she practises, you mostly fall over, or just watch her contentedly.  
  
Cronus picks up your helmet and shoves it down on your head firmly, pushing all your hair into your eyes so that you have to reach up under your visor to tuck it out of the way. He pushes your board into your arms, looks you over worriedly, and glances around fearfully before leaning in and pressing one more kiss to your lips and hissing a final warning.  
  
"Not a fuckin word of this". Then he pushes you hard toward the gap leading to the clearing and turns to flee in the opposite direction. You stumble out and nearly go flying directly into Latula herself.  
  
"Phew, don't scare me boy. I thought you'd gone and gotten yourself lost again!"  
  
“I'M FINE” you blurt out just a little too loudly and quickly, but Latula is used to your quirky ways and doesn’t read anything into your over reaction.  
  
"Come on then, lets go bust out some rad tricks." She turns back in the direction on the bridge. "Aww... Why you limpin’ like that?"  
  
"... I fell..."  
  
  
***  
  



	2. Arrangement

The continued smart rapping on the hive door confused the hell out of Cronus as he blearily poked his head out of his recuperacoon, his gaze eventually focusing on the softly glowing numbers on his digital wall clock. What the fuck. Who the hell was going to be visiting him at this time in the evening, the sun had to be barely set. Additionally, who the hell ever came to visit Cronus?

He crawled out and grabbed the first clothes that came to hand, wincing as he was forced to pull them on over his slime slicked skin, and ran a hand through his erratic sleep mussed hair. He was loath to present such a disorderly face to the outside world but, a visit at this time… it had to be something important. He padded quickly down the hall and opened the door to the fresh chill of the outside world.

He wondered how strongly visible the look of disappointment was that crossed his face to find Kankri stood there in his disorderly lawn ring. Although it wasn’t as if he particularly disliked Kankri. He wasn’t that disagreeable unless you accidentally made an offhand comment that he took offence to, and then you were in for a long and condescending lecture about your ignorance on such matters and checking of various privileges. You could run into him though and have a reasonable chat though on occasion and Kankri was about the only troll sympathetic to Cronus’s dysmorphia towards his troll body. But it couldn’t be good that Kankri had come round to see him specifically, alone and at a ridiculous hour of the day.

“Unless you are currently entertaining company, I wondered if you would grant me a short amount of your time to have a brief discussion of a fairly important nature.” he said in his usual clipped and hugely disdainful tone. 

Cronus swallowed hard but tried to sound cheerful and amicable.

“Yeah sure, come on in”.

He ambled his way along to his lounge block with Kankri following closely behind, taking in every small detail around him of the messiness and general disorganisation of Cronus’s hive. Cronus picked up his guitar and gathered together the wash of loose papers on and around the sofa on which he scribbled various notes, lyrics and random doodles, so that Kankri could actually take a seat in amongst the clutter. Cronus just knew he was assessing the abandoned cans and food packets, clothes thrown over a drying rack that he intended to put away eventually, the floor that could really use a sweep. Kankri sat carefully.

“Can I get you a drink?” Cronus offered uncomfortably, rubbing the back of his neck absently. 

“No, this won’t take long.”

Cronus sank down into his favourite armchair and waited for the grilling he was certain was coming his way.

“I thought I’d broach the delicate subject of what happened to Mituna recently.”

“Mi… Mituna?” This was unexpected. What had happened to Mituna? “What happened… is he okay?”

“I would think you would know” Kankri said with more than just a hint of accusation in his tone. Then dizzily, Cronus realised what he might be referring to. 

“Wha... What did he say?" he said quietly, visibly paling. 

"Mituna hasn't said anything to me, or anyone else I presume. Its more a matter of what I witnessed directly, myself“.

"W... Witnessed?" Cronus looked distinctly ill now.

"Yesterday. I thought it a nice clear evening to take some fresh air, compose my thoughts as I walked. I found a nice secluded area to write up my notes in the quiet until I was rudely disturbed by a fairly appalling display of debauchery." Kankri eyed him coldly.

Cronus was rendered speechless, his mouth simply hung open.

"Does the quadrant structure mean nothing to you and your relentless and disgusting need to satisfy your base urges?"

"I... uhh..."

"And preying on someone so vulnerable. I must admit I didn’t catch the very start of your encounter together, I was drawn to the sounds of a struggle and I witnessed... something that didn't look entirely consensual. And I try to avoid jumping to conclusions without being in full possession of the facts, but I would say that Mituna didn't appear to be engaged with you by his own choice."

"It wasn't... entirely like that..." Cronus whispered weakly.

"Mituna is... a delicate case. While I don't feel it necessary for him to be constantly supervised by someone in full possession of their faculties, he is somewhat easily lead on and easy to encourage into something he doesn’t fully understand the gravity of, and his intentions could be very easily misread."

Cronus looked like he might just fall apart at any moment. Of course deep down he had known, been completely aware that he was deliberately trying to seduce Mituna into an extra-quadrant affair. And just maybe he was desperate enough to start imposing on the known quadrants of others. But... the worse realisation... that he had actually taken Mituna against his will. At the time it had felt more like blackrom sex play, but he didn’t have an established kismesitude with Mituna at all. Mituna might have been sexually excited, and Cronus had brought him to climax, but he hadn't explicitly agreed to any of it.

"You do know your actions constitute a rape, don't you" Kankri said exactly the words that Cronus didn't want to hear. 

"No... I didn't mean to..."

"Latula and Kurloz are both completely within their rights to punish you in whatever way they feel appropriate for this misdemeanour. You might find that the best you can hope for is a swift death. As adults, we wouldn't fail to act in suitably drastic measures when such overstepping of boundaries becomes an attack on personal pride."

Cronus considered his options. Whereas he felt he could try to explain, to charm and talk Latula round into having some mercy on him, he was fucking terrified of Kurloz. That guy was dangerous. The rumour went that he was responsible for both Meulin's loss of her hearing and whatever incident that had left Mituna brain damaged and unable to use his psiionics anymore. It didn't bear thinking about, what that psycho highblood could do to him.

Kankri was watching him intently, knowing that he was weighing up his options. He cleared his throat. 

"Whereas I feel a strong duty to seek out justice wherever I see a crime perpetrated on another, especially a vulnerable individual, or one of the lower blood caste..." Kankri trailed off thoughtfully. "I feel oddly compelled myself towards pity on this occasion. How very, very odd."

Cronus, who had been staring vacantly down at his tightly clenched fists while his mind turned over in turmoil, now looked up with desperate hope in his eyes. 

"You won't tell anyone..." he said, slowly and carefully.

"No, I don't think I will." 

Cronus sagged back against the chair in relief. 

"If we can come to some sort of arrangement, that is".

Cronus stiffened again slightly. 

"Arrangement?"

"It seems we all have a front to put up, secrets to keep, skeletons in the closet. Maybe I can keep your secret... If you can keep mine." 

"I... don't think I follow you." Cronus shifted uncomfortably, warily as Kankri moved to stand before him. He looked up, meeting Kankri's cold, serious gaze, but flinched with surprise when the otherwise short, unimposing troll pressed a warm hand to Cronus's cold cheek. 

"I feel the increasing need to seek a relationship... But outside the quadrant system. I want to maintain my integrity as a social commentator, and remain committed to my status free of quadrant entanglements. I am completely committed to my celibacy as I make known very publicly.”

Cronus looked bewildered. 

'That isn’t to say that I don’t feel urges, I am just above submitting to them and letting them influence my theories and actions. So in essence... a secret relationship, and you will follow my every instruction. In return for my silence."

Cronus frowned as he tried to process what was being offered up to him. If he was hearing right, he could buy Kankri's silence concerning his assault with something as simple as agreeing to be in a relationship with him. Kankri wasn't exactly high on his personal list of romantic conquests but, he didn't find the guy totally offensive to his senses and a quadrant filled was still a quadrant filled. Except that it wasn't officially to be a quadrant. And he had to let Kankri be in charge. 

His gut feeling was that something didn’t tally up, but he still couldn't find a major flaw with the arrangement.

"Yeah. I'll do it".

Kankri grinned in a way Cronus had never seen the usually sullen faced little troll grin before. It didn't take the edge off his nerves.

He reached into a trouser pocket concealed beneath the hem of his bulky sweater. Glancing down, Cronus found him tying a thin rope bracelet around his right wrist. It was the same bright red as his sweater, possibly even woven from the exact same fabric. 

“Just a subtle reminder of our arrangement.”

“Oh… okay…”

He looked at it dumbly for a few moments, while Kankri watched him.

"I‘ll be taking my leave of you now. I'll send for you when I need you."

Cronus got unsteadily to his feet, following the light march of the shorter troll toward the entrance door to see him out. As he stepped out of the warm hive into the cooler night air, he glanced back with a serious and meaningful expression on his face. 

"Don't forget" was his simple but explicit warning as he left.

****


	3. Interrogation

  
  
Cronus spent the next couple of perigees maintaining a very low profile. He mostly stayed in his hive, and remained anxious of any possible confrontation by Latula or Kurloz. At first he had an obsessive tendency to stay sat close to a window, watching out warily for anyone approaching. When he wasn’t doing that, the slightest noise from outside would set his gills on edge. His eventual compromise was to sit within view of an upper floor window and attempt to jam a little on his guitar, to try and distract himself from his rampant over thinking. As well as his fear, he was also worried about Mituna. He wanted to be able to see him, however briefly, just to see that he was alright. Maybe he could try and hide near the bridge and just watch, without Mituna seeing him just in case it made him freak out and blurt out what happened. But... It just felt too risky. So he sat alone and stewed. Until a message box flashed up on his computer in the corner of the room. He put down the guitar and stepped across the respitblock to squint at the bright screen.  
  
 _Come round to my hive in precisely one hour's time._   
  
Even without looking at the trolltag the lurid red text left no doubt as to who the message had come from. He found himself unconsciously touching the red band around his wrist... he had actually almost forgotten about Kankri after the first restless day's sleep wondering if he really did intent to keep his vow of silence. Something about the way he negotiated the situation still didn't feel right, something felt out of character about Kankri that day. But he hadn’t known Kankri to ever lie about anything.   
  
Breathing out heavily, he headed directly to the ablution block.  
  
                                                                                                                                    ----------  
  
The sun was just set and the moons brightening in the sky when Cronus set out. It was a bit of a walk to Kankri's hive but the travel didn’t bother him, he was more worried about bumping into anyone. But it was still early evening and it was unlikely that many would be up yet. It made sense though that Kankri would be an early riser, and Cronus was only awake because he was having trouble getting any solid sleep.  
  
It was only once he had avoided meeting anyone else that he started to feel uneasy, approaching Kankri's immaculate lawnring and thoughtfully designed hive. He really didn’t know what to expect from the start of this relationship considering the grounds it had been initiated on. Was he just after companionship? The guy cringed if anyone so much as used explicit language around him, could he even be interested in sexual contact? And considering what Kankri caught Cronus doing to Mituna... well... unlikely to make anyone go 'yeah, that’s the guy I want to be with'!  
  
He had just raised his knuckles to rap on the door when he clicked softly open. Kankri stood as always, neatly groomed and dressed. Short. Quiet. Unassuming. He didn’t even say anything, just retreated back into the hive with the implication that Cronus follow him.   
  
"Have you bathed? Eaten?" The hive door clicked shut. Cronus swallowed, oddly nervous.  
  
"Yeah, I’m good to go… I guess."  
  
"Good" Kankri nodded approvingly "We'll get started then. Follow me."   
  
Cronus followed him as he moved further into the hive, and then up a flight of steps. Maybe they were going to his respitblock. Shit, did he actually want to go straight into sex? Didn’t seem likely before but now he wasn’t so sure. They turned into a room.  
  
It was highly unlikely that the room was Kankri's respitblock. It was practically empty of furnishings, the lack of a recuperacoon being the main giveaway. Instead he had... one of the things that humans slept in. A bed. Cronus had always wanted to try one out, but no troll would ever get restful sleep in one. They needed the sopor. He had no idea why Kankri had the bed. Beside that there was only a storage unit, a long mirror and a chair.   
  
"Take your clothes off" Kankri said in a casual tone, as if he was merely asking Cronus to take a seat. His mild expression never changed.  
  
"W... What?"  
  
"Take your clothes off" Kankri repeated, exactly as before.  
  
"Um... yeah, I thought that’s what you said. You know, this is kinda an odd way to start getting acquainted, couldn’t we go chill out a bit first, watch a movie and get some sloppy makeouts going first…"  
  
"You don’t get that kind of privilege. Mituna didn’t, after all" Kankri said, airily. That shut Cronus up.   
  
He was taller, heavier, most likely stronger that Kankri but the other troll held his ground, staring him down until Cronus bowed out to the pact. Reluctantly, he stripped his shirt off. He was highblooded, genetically gifted with the best physical qualities. Tall, solidly built with an aesthetically pleasing, sculpted figure, perfectly proportioned, his skin a smooth even grey with the ever so slight sheen typical of a seadweller. His gills lined up in neat, purple edged slashes down either side of his torso, sealed shut at any time he wasn’t underwater. He didn't spend much time underwater aside the occasional leisure swim, being a seatroll made him feel like he had even less in common with humans, and imitating them was his main hobby aside his romantic questing.  
  
Kankri's gaze was hawk-like, scrutinizing. He almost looked annoyed. But he didn't tell Cronus to stop.  
  
Cronus kicked his boots off next, and then slid his shorts off together with his jeans in one go. He was now completely naked apart from the red band on his wrist. The two regarded each other in silence for long, stretched out moments.  
  
Kankri actually cleared his throat before issuing the next command.  
  
"Sit down" he motioned to the chair in the centre of the room.  
  
Cronus sat. Kankri was really fucking unnerving him. Was this supposed to be erotic at all. Was it erotic to him?   
  
"Put your hands behind your back, behind the back of the chair."  
  
"Why..." Cronus asked in a small voice.  
  
"Don’t question me, just do it. I’m not going to hurt you."  
  
Cronus complied, and he felt Kankri pull his wrists together and wrap something around them securely. Had to be rope. His suspicions were confirmed when Kankri appeared in front of him again, and knelt to position his ankles against each of the front chair legs, and bind them too. Yeah, he was pretty damn scared now. He closed his eyes and swallowed hard. What the hell was Kankri up to?  
  
A light touch settled against his neck, but almost burning hot against skin chilled with fear.  
  
"You know, I’ve never had a truly 'captive' audience to educate before."  
  
"Very funny" Cronus muttered.   
  
"Oh, I don’t think there will be much humour in our little discussion." And Kankri did look quite, quite serious. He stepped back, folded his arms in front of his ugly, thick red sweater. "I think we need to have a good hard look at your behaviour."  
  
Cronus shifted uncomfortably in his bindings. "What’s wrong with my behaviour? I think I'm an okay guy as far as our little circle of freak show acquaintances go"   
  
"Well, for a start we'll use Mituna as a case study as to why you are way out of line."  
  
"Look, you got me all wrong about that. That situation... I didn’t mean for it to happen like that. I wasn't taking advantage of him like you think I was. I'm…” He faltered. "I'm really fond of Mituna okay? I been flushed for him for sweeps, even before he got messed up. I got carried away, you know how frustrating he is to deal with, right?".   
  
“I distinctly heard the slur ‘pissblood' issue from your lips while you were assaulting him" Kankri stated coldly. Cronus looked shocked.  
  
“I wasn’t targeting him because he’s a lowblood, if that’s what you’re getting at.” he retorted sullenly. “I don’t even give a shit about the hemospectrum. I was just... annoyed, that kinda slipped out..."  
  
“It doesn’t seem that way to me. You need educating about your tendencies to abuse those lower than your high blood.”  
  
"That’s pretty fuckin’ hard considering just about everyone is below me" Cronus snapped out before he could stop himself.  
  
Kankri's eyes lit up. "That’s exactly the sort of attitude I’m talking about"  
  
"What? No! I didn’t mean it like that!" Kankri was twisting his words. "And what fuckin’ tendencies, I don't got it in for anyone. You know I’m chill, I just like to hang out and play my music. So I like a shameless flirt on the odd occasion, that’s hardly a crime."  
  
"Violent tendencies are in your blood" Kankri continued darkly. "In your nature"  
  
"Oh! Now who's fuckin’ discriminating against blood type?!"  
  
Kankri moved to stand beside him. He felt those impossibly warm little fingers stroke the upper edge of his ear fin, which twitched reflexively at the unexpected touch. Then Kankri was running his fingers down the side of his neck, and then his upper chest.   
  
"Mituna didn’t want your hands on him" Cronus tensed as Kankri ever so slightly let his nails catch on his gill slits as he continued down the side of his chest. "You didn't stop when he asked you to. Surely if you cared about him you would have stopped."  
  
"I couldn’t tell Mituna... what I wanted, he doesn’t understand. I thought I could just show him."  
  
"You certainly did show him..." Kankri almost crooned against his ear. His small soft hand was trailing down Cronus's hip now. "You enjoyed showing him. You enjoyed exerting your power over him." Cronus's heartbeat felt louder, faster suddenly. Kankri nearly had his hand against his crotch. He swallowed hard, an audible click in his throat. He just knew that he was getting hard but he couldn’t bear to look down.   
  
"I think you can stop trying to defend yourself now" Kankri's tone was hideously smug.   
He leant close into Cronus's side to press the pad of his finger against the tip of his stiffening bulge, and Cronus felt the simultaneous guilt from his own arousal with the unexpected surprise from the press of Kankri's own concealed bulge against his body.  
  
"You enjoyed having control over Mituna. And I’m rather enjoying... Having control over you." he whispered reverently.

  
****


	4. Revalation

 

Cronus opened his eyes. Gradually the softly curving sides of his recuperacoon came into focus. He was back in his hive. He lay quietly for a moment or two, contemplating the fading fragments of the dream he had been having, then slowly roused himself from the slime. He wiped off most of the green sludge with a nearby towel before hopping out, and padding naked into the ablution block to finish the job. He showered, dressed, slicked back his hair as usual, and went to look for something to throw together for breakfast.  
  
Things felt kinda surreal today. It was later than he had been up the evening before, so he glanced at his computer half expecting to already see a message from Kankri, but there wasn’t one. That guy was obviously leaving him time to stew in his thoughts. But Cronus honestly didn’t know quite what to make of Kankri and the particulars of his little schooling session. He recalled uncomfortably how Kankri twisted his responses to his taunts, both his verbal and physical responses, to back up the character faults he was laying against him relentlessly. He couldn’t believe he had actually gotten hard, but that was almost entirely down to the oddly bewitching feel of Kankri's hot touch on his exposed skin. But Kankri had cruelly and unusually aroused him and then... Simply let him go. He had untied him, and made him get dressed again and leave in that state. Cronus didn’t understand the nature of the relationship he was trying to establish.  
  
He did find more than ever that he wanted to see Mituna though.  
  
Against his better judgement he found himself out in the cool night air, heading toward the bridge. He heard laughing and voices before he came into plain view so instead he stayed back, just around that same spot he had lured Mituna to. Fuck, what? No! He hadn’t lured Mituna there, he wasn’t that predatory. That was... Fuckin’ Kankri putting words in his mouth.  
  
Hmph, quite the little double dating group chilling out down there. The shouting and laughing was coming mostly from Latula as she leapt around on her little four wheeled board to the obvious enjoyment of her small audience sat under a nearby tree. Meulin snuggled against Kurloz on the grass, while Mituna sat on his skateboard on Kurloz's other side. He seemed pretty relaxed really, still and quiet, but he heard that Mituna was better behaved and more lucid in the company of his moirail. Shame there was no way to make him like that the rest of the time. Cronus slouched against a tree trunk and sighed hollowly. He couldn’t go down there and try to hang out with them, it was too risky. He was pretty sure at times like this that he wasn’t particularly missed either. The fifth wheel in amongst their nicely connected little quadrant grids.  
  
'Couldn’t resist returning to the scene of the crime...' The voice, though soft, still made Cronus leap nearly clean out of his skin.  
  
'Kankri... Shit. Don’t fuckin’ do that man, I nearly had a heart attack!"  
  
"Please try to refrain from using such foul language in a public place" the smaller troll tutted as he approached to stand beside Cronus. He too gazed down at the group. "I wouldn’t recommend making any moves on Mituna while he's with a large company."  
  
"Look, I’m not here for any other reason than to make sure he looks okay." Cronus retorted with irritation. "Will you quit trying to make me out to be some sort of monster!"  
  
He tried not to picture Kankri watching them from somewhere nearby this very spot, watching while he violated a poor, damaged and ‘underprivileged’ lowblood, and failed. Why didn’t he even intervene if he saw it as such a terrible Social Injustice. But that was Kankri all over. Guy sometimes just made no sense, always overanalyzing everything from every angle until anything he chose to babble on about was pure contradiction.  
  
"Anyway, I’m done with this now. They're all having fun over there, I might as well just go back home and find some way to kill time alone."  
  
“Not necessarily. You can accompany me back to my own hive.”  
  
Cronus groaned inwardly.  
  
"Am I goin’ to get lectured again..."  
  
"If I so choose to". Cronus flinched as Kankri gave the red band on his wrist a small tug. "Remember that you don’t get a say in what I decide to arrange for you." He glanced poignantly toward the group, toward Mituna, Latula. Kurloz. Cronus shivered.  
  
"Fine then, lets go"  
  
                                                                                                                                          ----------  
  
"This... is degrading."  
  
Kankri looked at Cronus as he stood naked as if he was completely stupid.  
  
"Of course, that’s the whole point. Being thus exposed against your wishes will make you unlikely to perpetrate the same treatment against others. If you don’t like how it feels then you are maybe actually learning something."  
  
He turned back to the drinks he was preparing. Cronus sank down onto the sofa, and sat covering his private areas as best he could. Despite the fact that Kankri had already seen it all the night before. God this treatment didn’t feel right by the standards of any known quadrant. He felt lost as to how to compose himself.  
  
Kankri handed Cronus a glass and wandered over to turn on a music system on the opposite side of the room. It started to play soft classical music, not really to Cronus' own musical taste, but at least neither of them were into that God awful slam poetry set to music. He returned and sat on the other sofa adjacent to Cronus. He was still wearing a huge silly red sweater. He probably had a whole wardrobe full of them. Cronus couldn't think of a time he had ever seen him in anything else, so he found himself randomly contemplating what kind of body build was concealed under all those thick, baggy woollen layers.  He wondered if Kankri ever planned to actually disrobe around him or whether it was just going to be him, forced to sit around naked.  
  
He sipped the greenish gunge in the glass. It was citrus sharp and sweet, probably some kind of hideously healthy fruit smoothie. That guy. He really did think he was a fucking model citizen when all it really made him was sanctimoniously annoying as fuck. However, when he raised his gaze to Kankri's face, he found him smiling at him pleasantly. 

“Everything okay?” he asked, equally pleasantly.

“Yeah, fine.”

Silence for a while. Cronus took a couple of large swigs of his drink, attempting to get shot of the nasty slush quickly rather than reject it and probably offend his weird host. He decided to try and make conversation.  
  
“So, do you watch movies or anything?”  
  
“Not really. They tend to contain too much objectionable material, violence, bad language, flashing lights etc... Loaded with trigger material. I prefer to read myself.”  
  
Dull.  
  
“Well. Okay.” Cronus forced an interested smile. “What sort of stuff do you like to read?”  
  
“History, culture, social discourse, self improvement…”  
  
Yeah, there was pretty much no way that wasn't going to be the kind of response he expected from Kankri. The guy had zero imagination. Cronus was seriously starting to wonder if this arrangement was worth the effort, surely it would be better for Kurloz to dispatch him quickly rather than endure a slow, tedious boring-to-death from a nubby horned pipsqueak.  
  
Well, that was the conversation dead again. Guess Kankri didn't know how to hold discussion outside of lecturing people about his pseudo important bullshit. Cronus found he'd finished his drink already, simply from having nothing else to do.  
  
“Another drink?” Kankri was still sipping his.  
  
“It would be a really long shot to ask if you got any decent liquor, wouldn't it?”  
  
Kankri nodded. Cronus let a small sigh slip out.  
  
"So do you have anything in mind for entertainment this evening or is this about it?"  
  
"Depends on how you feel, give it a little time." Kankri said. He just continued to sit there, his fingers interlaced around his glass, still smiling that pleasant smile. Cronus sank back against the sofa. This was shaping up to be utterly dull, and he was already starting to feel tired and sleepy from the lack of any interesting activity. Well, not overly tired, more fatigued. Odd though, it was still kinda early and he hadn’t done anything more than go for a short walk tonight, and yet his limbs were starting to feel pretty heavy.  
  
“I’ll just take your glass then”. Kankri rose and made to approach to take the glass from Cronus. Cronus tried to hand it to him... And failed. He couldn't really raise his arm and even the glass nearly slipped from between his fingers before Kankri gently caught his shaky hand, and took the glass himself.  
  
“That’s... Not right..." Cronus muttered with confusion just before he was jarred away from the warm press of Kankri's hands by the shock of cold metal around his wrist. He gazed down with numb confusion at the handcuff, and continued to just watch as Kankri carefully lifted his other limp arm forward and cuffed both wrists together. Then he plumped up the cushions, ensuring that his now captive guest was comfortably supported.  
  
"Kan... man, just... exactly what are you doing?"  
  
"Doing you a favour" Kankri replied, with the smile still on his lips.  
  
Then he was on the sofa with Cronus, climbing up over his prone body and carefully laying his smaller figure against him. The soft wool of the sweater pressed against his stomach and chest, kinda tickled, as did the wild curls of Kankri's hair as he brought his face close to the seatroll's. Cronus never usually had the opportunity to see how bright, bright red the irises surrounding his dark languid pupils were. Then Kankri's lips were pressed, somewhat tentatively against his, like he wasn't sure what he was doing. Cronus wondered, considering the present circumstances, if he should reciprocate and actively encourage Kankri.  
  
What the hell, he was already restrained and possibly drugged already, as well as caught in the snare of blackmail. He opened up to the advance and kissed Kankri back. The other troll really wasn’t so good, he was a little clumsy, uncoordinated with Cronus, the mark of someone who didn't even so much as watch making out scenes in movies. If only the others could be witnessing this strange sight, the holier-than-thou celibate attempting to mack on the desperate and shameless flirt. But he was seriously trying, his eyebrows knit with concentration over his closed eyes when Cronus snuck a peek at him. He shifted again, and the movement had him pressing both his warm hands against Cronus's chest for support. He was just so toasty. Lowbloods were so oddly warm.  
  
Cronus broke the kiss and tried to raise his cuffed hands, but his body felt completely leaden, his limbs heavy and slightly numb, impossible to move much, even though he felt lucid enough in his thoughts.  
  
"Okay Kan, I’m not that dumb. What did you put in that drink?"  
  
"Its a concentrated sopor extract, chemically adjusted to maximise the physical sedative properties. I presume you are feeling something of an inability to move around much, I must admit I was unsure of how much I should dose a seadweller such as yourself."  
  
"Why though, why did you do it..." Cronus's tone was oddly flat, like he couldn’t work out what emotion he should be feeling as he accepted this information.  
  
“I have my reasons, but you might personally like to consider how frightening it can be to be disadvantaged physically and taken advantage of."  
  
"You just cant drop the Mituna thing, can you..."  
  
"I’m not dropping it until I’ve made you feel true repentance. We don’t even know how affected Mituna is by his ordeal, I think maybe I should be the one to approach him when I find a suitable opportunity."  
  
"I'm really not so sure about this arrangement anymore" Cronus said quietly. "I don’t think I really knew what I was getting into with you."  
  
Kankri looked momentarily put out, then the corner of his mouth twitched and without another word, he kissed Cronus again hard. Cronus didn’t respond this time to make sure Kankri knew he wasn’t happy, but he could neither stop him nor get away. Kankri's fingers pressed into his chest. Then they were edging down over his stomach. Cronus tensed as Kankri ghosted a butterfly light touch over his sheathed bulge, feeling his blood run a little hotter, but he was still annoyed enough to not feel true arousal, either that or the drugging had affected his ability to become fully aroused.  
  
"This ain’t right Kan..." he sighed as Kankri gently palpitated that area, watching with rapt interest as his manipulations made the area swell a little, and Cronus's bulge actually started to poke free of his sheathed entrance, but it was still soft and sluggish.  
  
"Without the sopor I would have to rely on you keeping your abusive nature and physical advantage in check, and I'm not that naive. Or trusting of you yet."  
  
"Yeah, ‘cos I’m all about trusting you too when you do this to me". He screwed his eyes shut as Kankri pressed his lips against his neck, and licked, tasting him. Then he retreated suddenly, and when Cronus dared open his eyes to see why, the smaller troll was sitting back and pulling his awful sweater up over his head and dropping it to the floor beside them. Cronus momentarily forgot his annoyance as he finally had the opportunity to check out the mystery of Kankri's figure. His smaller body was smooth and delicately proportioned, and he was just carrying enough weight to give him an ever so slightly feminine appearance, especially with his loosely curled hair mussed up by the removal of his top. Then Kankri lay back down against him, pressing his torso close to Cronus's, and he was truly taken back by the heat radiating off of him. He wondered how hot he would feel from the inside if he held the little lowblood down and fucked him hard, hotter and tighter than Mituna maybe. Would Kankri also cling to him and cry out, overcome by unfamiliar and intense sensation? Kankri's fingers now lightly stroked his stiffening bulge as these thoughts heated his physical desire. Since Kankri had made it impossible for him to move enough to fuck him maybe he would get on top and ride him instead? Was he secretly hiding such a wild and wanton side under all that preachy, goody goody bullshit facade?  
  
Cronus actually gave a sharp, surprised yelp when Kankri non-too gently pushed two fingers into his own slick nook.  
  
"Wha..." he gulped "Kankri, what are you doing?"  
  
"The same things I saw you doing" Kankri stated with the usual patronising air he took on when he was dealing out a dressing down to whoever was currently falling outside the 'Kankri Code of Conduct'. "Fascinating..." he whispered as he stretched his fingers open, then twisted them, feeling the internal muscles clench and watching Cronus's bulge twitch.  
  
"Oww, hey! Not so rough down there!" Cronus hissed through his fangs. "Fuck, do you handle yourself that roughly?!"  
  
"How dare you suggest that I touch myself inappropriately" Kankri seemed to be barely paying attention to Cronus' objections as he tried to slide in a third finger. "I didn’t expect it to be so tight, considering how whorishly you act in public."  
  
"Yeah, well... Oww." He hissed again at Kankri's clumsy probing. "Its no real secret that its Porrim and Rufioh that get all the actual action around here. I just try and try and get nowhere, I dunno what makes them so fucking special." His breath hitched, with pain or maybe even upset. "Why do you think I always try so hard with Mituna? He’s the only one of them that doesn’t blow off my advances outright."  
  
"So... You haven’t had anyone take you here before." Kankri was now intensely inspecting his lightly purple stained fingers. Being so closely analysed like some kind of lab specimen was not at all erotic.  
  
Cronus faltered a little, his bravado just a little bit dented.  
  
"Well... No..."  
  
A hesitant grin spread in halting degrees across Kankri's face. He levered himself off of Cronus and stood to strip off his trousers. There was something incredibly surreal about seeing Kankri stood naked with his engorged bulge fully and plumply exposed. For his small stature he had an attractive and well proportioned bulge, although it was still smaller than Cronus's own. It was already pretty slick with red goo, Kankri must have been highly excited for some time although he fucking hid it well. He was briskly pulling two of the cushions from the other sofa and then he was back by Cronus's side, forcing them quickly under his lower back, raising the angle of his hips. He pulled at Cronus's closest useless leg and let it flop over the edge of the sofa, the action automatically spreading his thighs.  
  
"Then I will be the one to take you and make you mine".  
  
Cronus could only watch as Kankri crawled back onto the sofa, and briefly speculate on how things had taken a very unexpected turn. But sex was sex was sex, it didn’t matter who was the passive partner really, a mere matter of personal preference. It was the beauty of their biological design and as long as pails were filled, they could all joyfully live to face the threat of being culled another day. Kankri raised his captive's chained hands above his head and sealed his lips against the highblood's, and Cronus reciprocated the kiss as he felt the hot press of the landtroll's bulge against his entrance. Then he was crying out with surprising volume as Kankri pushed forward hard and slid deeply inside him.  
  
"Shiiiiiiiiiit..." he whispered in a rush of hot breath against Cronus's cheek, pressed closely, deeply but not moving, struck dumb by the feeling of being so intimately, so pleasurably connected with another being. Cronus's purple eyes gazed widely into Kankri's brightly burning red ones as both felt the loss of an element of their virginities. It had hurt a little more than he expected, but the feeling of Kankri filling him like this was... amazing. His bulge throbbed heatedly, trapped between the tight press of their bodies.  
  
"Fuck..." he panted softly. "That’s more intense... than I would have.... thought."  
  
"Tell me... If I’m doing it wrong. I... Don’t even... touch myself." Kankri hitched, even more overcome than Cronus was. He braced his arms on either side of Cronus, and backed up his hips, sliding his bulge partially back out again. Cronus moaned on Kankri's next forward thrust.  
  
"You're on your own if you need... Physical guidance. Fuckin' sopor has seen to that" he panted as Kankri moved against him, but he tried experimentally to move his arms and found he had gained back a tiny bit of control over them, he flexed his fingers but still couldn’t lift anything.  
  
The lack of Kankri's usually cold and impassive glare was mesmerising, his face transformed so dramatically by his flushed cheeks, bright eyes, lips parted by heavy breathing. He looked so much softer, warmer, actually enticing when he wasn’t being his frosty, arrogant, lecturing self. The feel of Kankri stuffing his nook was unexpectedly good, but he wasn’t leaning low enough over Cronus as he thrust to provide much friction against his straining bulge, and he didn’t think he could pail just from getting fucked.  
  
"Shit... Shit..." Kankri cursing was sexy as hell, but he was cursing with an anxious look crossing his face now. He pulled out very suddenly and grabbed the first nearest thing to clamp over himself as he ejaculated, which just happened to be his sweater. He was making the most erotic sounds, tiny breathless squeaks and gasps as he hunched over himself, shaking from the obvious power of his orgasm. Cronus wished he could touch him, try to feel some of that intensity himself, but he could still barely shift his limbs.  
  
"You should have done that inside..." he chided softly, trying to imagine the heat spilling out of Kankri and into himself as he made those sounds, throbbed, twitched against him.  
  
"It’s too... improper..." came the strained response, then he bit his lower lip with a pained, almost disappointed look. "I.. I didn’t last as long as you did with Mituna."  
  
"Yeah well... I... get myself off a lot. So I got a bit more stamina. If you don’t do that, I guess you peak faster, ‘cos its a new thing and you might be more sensitive, or something." Cronus actually coloured slightly at his admission, then gazed imploringly up at Kankri.. "In fact, I’m kinda desperate... to pail right now."  
  
"I don’t think I’ll do it very well." The uncertainty in his voice was adorable.  
  
"Don’t worry about it, just please... touch me..." Cronus couldn’t help but beg, shamelessly. His bulge had leaked almost constantly while Kankri screwed him, and his light purple genetic material had run in streaks down both sides of his hips, making him look every bit the desperately horny troll that he was. He groaned his encouragement loudly as Kankri gripped him firmly and stroked.  
  
Kankri's technique wasn’t great, but it was enough. As soon as Cronus tensed and the first jet of purple liquid shot out of him, Kankri had shielded the rest from spilling out onto the sofa with his already gunked up sweater. He held on tight though until Cronus had nothing left to give. Then he lay himself carefully back down next to the seatroll, and nothing else was said for quite some time.  
  
Cronus was almost dozing when Kankri finally spoke.  
  
"You should stay here,  I don’t think you will have regained sufficient strength to travel back to your hive tonight." Cronus shifted his arms. They were strained and stiff, not to mention still cuffed, but he could move them again, just about. He shifted out from beside Kankri, found he could just about inch himself back up again into a sitting position. "I'll help you up to my respitblock."  
  
It was quite an operation for the shorter troll to support the taller, heavier one as he struggled weakly and clumsily up the stairs, but with perseverance they finally made it. Already naked, they crawled straight into the recuperacoon in Kankri's room... yet another neat and orderly room just like every other. Kankri pressed himself against Cronus's back as he lay on his side, his arm flung around his waist, and began breathing deeply in sleep almost immediately, acting so natural and unguarded for once in his life.  
  
Cronus had a little longer before he dropped off and hence, time to ponder that Kankri had neglected to remove his cuffs.  
  
****  
  



	5. Punishment

Cronus slept better than he ever had before, or at least that’s how it felt, curled close to Kankri and feeling such comfort, safety and warmth from his small body, the shift of his limbs as he moved in his sleep, the sound of his breathing. So different from sleeping alone. Dusk had barely fallen as he stirred and found himself snuggled in against Kankri's back while the other troll slept on. He looked sweet while he slept, and Cronus nuzzled the back of his neck affectionately, breathing in the scent of his hair, pressing his cooler body to the warm flesh of the other's back as if leaching his heat in this way, pulling it into himself and down toward his stiffening bulge. His semiconscious thoughts returned to the night before, to his fantasies of screwing Kankri.  
  
He gently shifted the sleeping troll over a little more onto his front, raising his small, cute ass and revealing a tempting glimpse of the place between his legs that Cronus was aching to penetrate. Kankri mumbled quietly in his sleep. Cronus moaned back in response, drifting somewhere between his dreams and consciousness. He wasn’t even fully aware that he was rubbing and then pressing himself insistently against that tight, virgin nook until Kankri was very much awake and pushing him back, yelling at him loudly and angrily, when all he had ever known before was quiet, calm, controlled speech.  It jarred him from his half sleeping fantasy abruptly.  
  
"Cronus why? What the hell, why were you doing that?" his voice had taken on a horribly shrill edge, like he was genuinely and seriously distressed.  
  
"Oww, don't fuckin' shout like that" Cronus scrubbed at his eyes, the chains of his cuffs jingling at the motion. "Gimmie chance to wake up gradually."  
  
"You just tried to... to… pail me! While I was ASLEEP".  
  
"Do what now?"  
  
"You... You were going to fuck me". Kankri continued in the same horrified high pitched tone, his eyes wide. "Cronus, I don't want you to fuck me. EVER."  
  
"But... We're pretty much Matesprits now aren’t we?".  
  
"I never said I wanted a Matesprit! I don’t want to fill any of my quadrants!"  
  
Cronus actually looked wounded.  
  
"But... What about yesterday..."  
  
"You misunderstand me." Kankri's voice turned horribly cold. "This is not a relationship like a quadrant relationship. You are supposed to follow my orders. And you... YOU DON’T DECIDE WHAT YOU WANT TO DO!"  
  
"Kan, I swear this shit just ain’t making any sense to me..." Cronus tried to placate him, but the small seething troll was already up and out of the recuperacoon. Cronus ran his fingers back through his sleep messed hair in frustration. Two steps forward and five steps back. He sighed and crawled out of the recuperacoon himself, maybe he should find Kankri and calm him down. But he didn't get very far.  
  
Kankri had stepped out from behind the recuperacoon and slipped the needle into his neck before he could even cry out in surprise.  
  
\------  
  
He didn’t immediately lose consciousness, but everything went incredibly hazy immediately after Kankri injected the entire contents of the syringe into his bloodstream. He staggered dizzily after the smaller troll as he was grabbed and dragged along by his cuffed wrists into the room Kankri had tied him to the chair in. But they bypassed the chair and instead Kankri pushed him over onto the bed, uncuffing one wrist long enough to loop the chain through the metal headboard frame and then re-securing the metal circlet. He backed away to the storage cabinet and withdrew another manacle set, securing Cronus's ankles in a similar fashion at the far end of the bed. When done he stood for a moment surveying the restraints, breathing a little heavily, both from bodily moving Cronus and also from his annoyance. Cronus just lay there, breathing shallowly but steadily, his eyes on Kankri but very unfocused.  
  
He wouldn’t be able to speak. It was a large dose of concentrated pure sopor. Kankri had experimented with creating several concentrations, but this one was fully sedative, both physically and mentally. He hadn’t expected to have to use this type but he had been both shocked and scared by Cronus's advance. He had thought they had actually been making good progress working on his behaviour.  
  
Kankri took a few deep breaths, cleared his mind, calmed himself back to rationality. Cronus looked like some silly great wounded beast lay sprawled on his side. His eyes were half lidded now, pupils dilated, and he was drooling slightly. Almost completely under. Kankri touched one of his horns tentatively, then ran his fingers along its bulky zigzagged shape. They were very aesthetically pleasing, he thought with a twinge of jealousy. It almost gave him the urge to saw them off while Cronus was asleep to teach him a lesson, but that was moving towards unnecessarily cruel treatment. And visually obvious to the other trolls when he wanted to keep his involvement with the seadweller a secret. He found himself moving on to touch his gills instead. They were in a less obvious place. He wondered how sensitive they were, pressing his fingers against the edge of one of the long slits and finding it give slightly, maybe the usual seal reflex weakened by the sopor. Just inside they were slick and deep purple in colour. It was too fascinating to feel like he was being overly invasive.  
  
His bulge was soft and mostly retracted from its earlier aroused state, and Kankri's exploitative fingertips found his nook a little sticky too. If he was in the habit of waking up horny, Kankri figured he needed to restrain him or otherwise take preventative measures to safeguard his purity. Cronus probably wouldn’t take to the idea readily, but he needed to learn.  
  
They had tracked the slime from the recuperacoon everywhere and Kankri himself was still slicked with it. Time to bathe, clean up and get some food. Maybe go out for a walk. Cronus wouldn’t be going anywhere for a while.  
  
Quite an amusing thought.  
  
\------  
  
Cronus came to with Kankri sat beside him, stroking his hair gently. He licked his dry lips groggily. His body felt heavy and achy, and he couldn’t move easily when he tried. His efforts were accompanied by a metallic, jingling sound. He felt fingers under his chin, and Kankri was lifting his face gently, pressing the mouth of a bottle to his lips and he drank the cool, fresh water without a moment's hesitation. When his thirst was sufficiently slaked he dropped his head back down against the mattress again, but kept his gaze on Kankri, sitting there as usual, immaculately groomed and clothed in a fresh red sweater.  
  
"What happened?" he croaked.  
  
Kankri's expression was cold.  
  
"You stepped out of line."  
  
"I... I did... What?"  
  
"You started taking liberties. If you make a habit of it then you start sleeping alone. I might even make you sleep here on this bed without the comfort of sopor slime and see how much rest you get". Kankri informed him frostily.  
  
"I'm sorry Kan, I didn’t mean it." Cronus tried to crawl to his knees and that was when he found his ankles were also chained as his wrists were. He let himself down again gently and closed his eyes with a sign. "I can behave, you don’t need to... do any of this to me."  
  
“I doubt I can be completely sure of that”.  
  
“Kankri… please…”  
  
“Do you know how much of an animal you act like sometimes? I can treat you like an animal if you want…” Kankri was still stroking his hair. Despite himself, Cronus was a little comforted by it. And then Kankri stopped and slipped something around his neck, bucking it closed with a click of metal. Cronus opened his eyes warily.  
  
“Is that a fuckin’… barkbeast collar?”  
  
“Good observation.” Kankri petted him gently. “It actually rather suits you”.  
  
“Is it red by any chance?”  
  
Kankri nodded.  
  
“I don’t have to wear this outside do I?”  
  
“No, just in here. To help you remember how to behave under the roof of my hive. Aesthetics really. I‘ve got something else to enforce appropriate behaviour.” Cronus felt his stomach lurch. Kankri had produced another item. Cronus narrowed his eyes at it in confusion.  
  
"Due to your earlier misdemeanour I thought it prudent to get this made up at the earliest opportunity."  
  
“Oh God… is that… is that a chastity device? His voice was incredulous. Kankri nodded.  
  
"Look… I really don’t want to be put into that. If you're so bothered about me why don't you wear the fucking thing instead?" Cronus couldn’t help but get aggravated.  
  
"It's pointless for me to be wearing it when it's you who should be learning a lesson" Kankri sounded so irritatingly casual about the whole thing.  
  
"This is just cruel and unusual…"  
  
"Oh stop moping Cronus, you won't have to wear it all the time, just around here. Or I might occasionally send you out in it. Think how grateful Mituna would be if he knew!"  
  
"Please, please please... enough with the Mituna thing. I'm starting to feel I've probably suffered enough now".  
  
"Well I still think you have a long way to go and my opinion is all that matters. Now get up and hold still."  
  
It was patently ridiculous allowing Kankri to order him around in this way, Cronus thought grudgingly to himself. He was pretty sure that he could overpower Kankri with next to no effort at all. He could probably kill him easily enough if he wanted to, and that would certainly ensure that his secret never got out. He doubted that killing Kankri would even spark any revenge moves from the others since he was something of an outsider within the group, a quadrantless loner. But despite what Kankri insisted on telling him, he just wasn't a violent guy and probably didn't have it in him to hurt Kankri.  
  
Worse than that, maybe Cronus felt himself even craving the attention, twisted as it was increasingly becoming.  
  
He propped himself up on all fours as much as the chains would allow and Kankri rewarded him with ruffle of his hair before slipping the straps around his hips, pressing the restrictive curved plate over his sheath area and pressing the internal facing plug just below it up into his nook. The whole thing was buckled up tightly at the base of his spine and Kankri clipped a small padlock through it, ensuring that the thing wouldn't be coming off by Cronus's hands. He squirmed experimentally, feeling the plug shift ever so slightly inside him, but it wasn't so uncomfortable now that it was warming to match his body temperature. It all felt pretty secure.  
  
"Okay, now what?" his defeated tone was incredibly sullen even to his own ears.  
  
"Well you pretty much slept the day away, and it's late now so I think we should get some food and then turn in for the night. And you can get accustomed to being better behaved."  
  
He was so cold, distant again. Cronus already missed the tiny glimpse of the better side of Kankri that had been allowed to see the night before when he had let his guard down. He was at least fully unchained and allowed to obediently follow Kankri back down to the loungeblock. Since he was still stained with dried sopor slime, and there was little point in bathing before getting straight back into it again, Kankri spread a towel on the sofa and made him sit on that. Kankri started to hum brightly while he set about preparing a meal. Cronus sat in silence and fiddled absently with the buckle of his collar.  
  
He really was starting to feel treated like an animal.  
  
____  
  
Kankri stirred in his arms, wriggled around to face him and burrowed into his chest. Cronus tentatively hugged him closer. He was so warm. Warm and soft and serene in his sleep. He felt desire coiling again through his body, into his groin, and his bulge swelled a little despite the fact that it was uncomfortably trapped inside his body, held back by the plate strapped tight against his crotch, anchored immovably by the plug inside him. It was all he could do to cling to Kankri and hold back a small sob of frustration as he waited for darkness to fall.  
  
\----  
  
“Cronus, get up!”  
  
Cronus cranked his tired eyelids open. Kankri was stood outside the recuperacoon, leaning in and shaking him roughly by the shoulder.  
  
“Wha…” he mumbled sleepily.  
  
“I’ve let you sleep in long enough and you didn’t get to bathe the other day, you’re a mess”. Kankri clucked. “I’m not taking you out anywhere in that state. Get a move on.”  
Cronus sighed deeply and crawled out. Kankri stood with a towel wrapped around his waist, he was already cleaned off. He gestured for the seatroll to follow him, and they were soon in his ablution block. It looked as though Kankri had already run a deep, hot bath of water for him, which did look really inviting. The smaller troll reached up to remove the red collar from round his neck.  
  
“What about the rest?” Cronus ventured quietly.  
  
“It can stay on for now, the water won’t damage it”.  
  
Cronus tried to hide his disappointed frown by turning quickly and hopping into the tub. He slid down into the hot water and instantly had a short coughing fit from the tickling sensation of the heat hitting the sensitive insides of his gills as they flared open automatically. They were more accustomed to the icy chill of sea water so warm water had that weird effect. Kankri looked momentarily concerned but Cronus gave him a thin smile and a dismissive hand wave.  
  
Having a bath was actually really nice, Cronus tended to shower more himself since it was quicker. He lay back and relaxed until Kankri dumped a bowl of water over his head, making him start. Kankri barely even noticed, settling himself behind Cronus and squirting a liberal amount of shampoo into his hair and starting to massage it through firmly. He was about to retort that he was capable of washing his own hair… but it actually felt quite nice having someone else do it for him. He was kinda sorry when it was done, but then again he was starting to feel pressure building up in his groin again so it was just as well that they were moving onto something else. They dried themselves off, and Kankri presented Cronus’s clothes back to him, freshly laundered and pressed. He sure had been busy the other night while Cronus had been out cold. Cronus slipped into his clean clothes, combed back his hair as best he could without anything to slick it in place with. Mercifully the contraption strapped to him was too discrete to show through his jeans. Kankri dressed exactly as he always did.  
  
"Come then, time to take in some fresh air and exercise".  
  
\------  
  
Being outside now made Cronus ridiculously nervous, which was further unnerving because it was so unlike him. He sloped along a pace or so behind Kankri as he strolled confidently, a folder of notes and a book tucked neatly under one arm and a small paper bag of filled grub loaves in the other hand. The straps shifted against his skin as he walked, a constant reminder of the shameful secret concealed by his jeans. He was relieved when Kankri selected a sheltered spot under some trees and sat down with his back against a trunk, opening the book and laying out some notes in front him. Cronus dropped down to sit beside him. He glanced down past Kankri's shoulder at the texts. Boring. He picked at the grass stems around him for while. Dull. Finally he stretched himself out along the ground on his back and closed his eyes. The night was totally still and quite warm, and he closed his eyes, letting his thoughts drift to the gentle shift of Kankri's papers and scritch of the pencil as he amended his notes. He kinda wished Kankri would talk to him but he was making it fairly obvious he was busy.  
  
"This is a somewhat unexpected picnic party..." a sultry female voice spoke suddenly, jerking Cronus from his snooze. He kept his eyes closed however. Even though he knew the voice belonged to Porrim his skin crawled with the possible dread that she wasn't alone.  
  
"Good evening Porrim" Kankri answered cordially. He also nodded acknowledgement to her companions. "Latula. Mituna."  
  
Cronus's blood ran cold.  
  
"Oh man, why you boring poor Cronus to sleep there? He cant be that starved for company!" Latula laughed good naturedly, and he literally wished he had the ability to disappear at will right then and there.  
  
"As it happens Cronus is actually here of his own free will, I’ve been offering advice and guidance on some personal issues he's been experiencing lately."  
  
He couldn’t keep pretending to be asleep so he opted to speak up.  
  
"Hey, sittin' right here ya know while you guys pick apart my private life in the open, thank you very much" he tried his best to sound cool and casual while still not daring to actually open his eyes and look up at them. To his own ears it sounded reasonably convincing.  
  
"There was a little concern that you hadn't been spotted skulking around for a while, hanging with Kanny though... just didn't spring to mind." Porrim shrugged. "Now we know, its cool."  
  
"Please don’t call me Kanny, Porrim." Kankri shuffled his papers together, irritated.  
  
"I cant imagine you having personal problems that didn’t have somethin' to do with your failed romantic conquests Cro-boy" Latula ribbed with a giggle. Cronus had to acknowledge that by opening one eye accompanied by a raised eyebrow.  
  
"How do you know he doesn’t?" Kankri said frostily. Cronus felt his windpipe tighten.  
  
"Pfffttt..." Latula snort giggled adorably. "Kankri why would anyone come to you for relationship guidance?" He coloured slightly.  
  
"Just because I have no interest in actively participating in relationships doesn’t mean I cant study the dynamics from an objective viewpoint." He didn't sound at all defensive or riled though, his tone was even.  
  
Liar... Cronus thought slyly to himself.  
  
"Whatever floats your boat" She waved at him dismissively but was still grinning wildly.  
  
"Should we leave them to their social discourse slash therapy session picnic?" Porrim also sounded amused. It was almost making Cronus feel like saying something in Kankri's defence, but that would only make his presence seem more suspicious. And, to use one of Kankri's favourite terms, he didn’t want to do or say anything that might trigger an incriminating reaction from Mituna. He hadn't said a single word yet, he was just standing slightly behind Latula, fiddling with one of the wheels of his board. Cronus couldn’t even tell where he was looking as the moonlight was reflecting directly off of his visor. It would be great if they just left now and diffused his whole awkward situation.  
  
"You know you are always welcome to join in discussion with us, or maybe we could strike up a debate, proof-read some of my notes..."  
  
Whether the offer was serious or not Cronus wasn’t really sure. However from his viewpoint it had a positive effect, the others laughed as they turned to leave.  
  
"The minute we fancy any of that Kanny we'll be right on over to ya" Latula winked over her shoulder.  
  
"Catch you later" Porrim crooned seductively.  
  
Mituna followed silently.  
  
Cronus breathed out heavily when they were well out of earshot, but twitched when Kankri gently laid a hand against his thigh. He finally sat up as Kankri set down his notebook and opened up the lunchpack.  
  
"Hungry"? He asked brightly.  
  
After lunch they dropped by Cronus's hive as he had been gone a couple of days. He sorted the stuff he still had sitting in the thermal hull and packed up some spare clothes and personal items under Kankri's instruction. Seemed that he wanted Cronus to stay with him in his hive a bit more often... The way he was casting a critical eye over the generally cluttered state of Cronus's place suggested he was less keen on staying there instead.  
  
He let him pick up his guitar though.  
  
Back at Kankri's hive the smaller troll fussed around his lounge block and food preparation area, cleaning and tidying a few of Cronus's things away. Cronus sprawled on the sofa, looking forlornly at Kankri's entertainment screen,  kinda wishing he could watch something but somehow he didn’t want to ask Kankri if he could. He fidgeted.  
  
"Kan... Can I have this... thing off for a while?  
  
Kankri looked at him sternly for a moment or two, which Cronus figured meant no  
  
"Alright then... Follow me."  
  
This room was getting quite familiar now. Kankri motioned to the bed and Cronus got onto it without a word. Kankri fitted cuffs back around his wrists and through the frame, before finally producing the key to the padlock attached to the back of the device. The relief was profound when Kankri unbuttoned and slid his jeans down, unfastened the humiliating thing and put it to one side.  
  
"It's supposed to be a punishment you know..." Kankri sounded unamused that the plug part was a little too slick for his liking.  
  
"Yeah, well you try walking around in it for a while. Anyway the front bit makes up for it by being the most uncomfortable thing ever."  
  
Kankri buckled the red collar around his neck again.  
  
"But, you are learning." He sounded pleased as he stroked Cronus's hair. "And good obedient behaviour should be rewarded."  
  
*****


	6. Invitation

Kankri traced his fingers lightly round Cronus's nook and in literally no time at all his bulge had slipped out; engorged, slick and throbbing with maddening need. When Kankri slid two fingers inside the moistening entrance to his body he couldn’t help but back himself into the stimulation.

  
"Kan... Kankri... Please..."

  
“You know... You wouldn’t be penetrated here if you were a human male. You would have to take it here…” Kankri’s touch left his nook and instead circled his thumb around the exit place of his waste chute. “Human biology makes no sense really. Having mating dominance decided by the physical nature of one’s gender doesn’t seem fair, it’s implications must extend further into the equality of the social structure…”

  
Nothing was quite as libido leaching as Kankri getting distracted and drifting away into some irrelevant musings about the development of alien societies.  
  
“I don’t care Kan, just fuck me however you want to. Do something…please…” Cronus dropped his flushed face against the mattress, pressing his forehead into the cool sheets. He was already dripping ridiculously from his bulge like it was crying from the sheer joy of being released from the awful chastity contraption. Kankri looked momentarily put out by Cronus so vulgarly cutting off his discourse, but then he gathered himself, got astride the bed and huffily pressed Cronus’s hips lower so that he could more easily rub his stiffening bulge between the sea troll’s buttocks and stimulate himself to full firmness. Cronus pulled on his chained wrists in frustration, but Kankri didn’t take the hint and didn’t reach out for Cronus’s tortured organ. When his own was throbbing and oozing his vivid red lubrication, he gripped Cronus’s hips and slid inside. Cronus gave a long, low moan of encouragement as Kankri filled him. Oh God, it was for this moment that he could just completely sweep aside all the shit that Kankri put him through and then some, just for the feeling of their two bodies joined like this. Likewise, it was the only time that Kankri’s mind went miraculously clear of all the things that bugged him at almost every other moment of his waking day. The expression on his relaxed facial features was that of someone having a sudden and powerful epiphany, at least until he leant in and bit his lip as he started to thrust rhythmically. Cronus keened pathetically, the tip of his bulge brushing the mattress with each downward push of Kankri's hips.  
  
He actually growled with sheer frustration when Kankri pulled out suddenly, knowing that the smaller troll hadn't come yet. He guessed the pailing instinct was possibly still pretty strong with him despite the repeated insistence that this was not a quadrant union. His theory seemed right when Kankri slightly awkwardly groped under the bed for a moment, and he heard the slightly metallic timbre of a receptacle being retrieved. But Kankri wasn’t actually backing off, instead he was then pressing his warm hands down on Cronus's back, urging him lower against the sheets and rubbing his slick bulge higher up, over and then firmly against his ass where he had toyed with him earlier. He could guess the intention.  
  
"Do it, if you're thinking about it." he hissed a little harshly, just a little too strung out by his need. A strange chill ran along his spine as he was simultaneously aroused by, and also afraid of being screwed there. He tried to picture the expression on Kankri's face but failed. Then Kankri whispered.  
  
"You... are a degenerate piece of trash."  
  
But the mirth in his tone was thinly veiled with contempt.  
  
Cronus exhaled in a giddy rush as Kankri pressed into him slowly. It felt very strange, bordering on mildly uncomfortable... if it weren’t for Kankri's careful advance he suspected it would actually be a bit painful. He felt his body's ridiculously tight grip around the base of Kankri's bulge as he pressed his entire length inside.  
  
"Fuck, fuck, fuuuuuuuck" He panted as Kankri backed off, pushed in again, slowly, smoothly, rhythmically. It took a little getting used to, the movement. But he was gradually relaxing into it.  
  
Finally Kankri's fingers encircled his bulge and squeezed, and Cronus almost sobbed with relief as that hot, firm little grip worked with heated abandon, as the thrusts into his rear quickened, then became harder and more erratic. The purple tinged lubrication was absolutely running down the insides of his thighs from his nook, he was that aroused, how intense it would be if he could be filled there too right now! The very thought pushed him over the edge and he moaned at the powerful sensation of even more purple liquid gushing from his bulge as his body tensed in orgasm. Kankri, ever the infuriating neat freak, didn’t spill of drop of it anywhere outside of the pail he had positioned between his trembling legs. It was such a beautiful purple, Cronus thought dizzily, a lopsided sated grin plastered across his face. The colour of genetic superiority, royal purple. Kankri made a short, choked sound and pulled out of Cronus abruptly, elbowing him aside roughly and gushing into the pail himself, one hand clutching his swollen organ, the other twisting the thick fabric of his jumper just over his chest, eyes half closed and cute wet mouth hanging open. The bright red seared a vivid wash across the rich purple, striking and... indecent. Mutant DNA mixed in with royalty. They both stared at it as though mesmerised, still breathing heavily.  
  
"Huh... That came pretty naturally then. Just need to get it that neat for the drone now I guess." Cronus spoke first.  
  
"Not in any of my quadrants" Kankri shot down his offhand remark humourlessly. He picked up the pail, set it down carefully on the floor away from any danger of being knocked over, and unlocked Cronus's cuffs. On standing he could feel some mild discomfort in his rear, but it was tolerable. The experience had felt important to him and he was amazed that Kankri had indulged him.  
  
"We should get showered. I'd like to do some reading, you can put the entertainment screen on for a while, if you want." That comment sounded less cold, his tone more amicable.  
  
Cronus almost felt satisfied, sprawled comfortably out on his front on the rug in front of the screen, clean and clothed, watching an action movie he'd gathered with the stuff from his hive. He still kinda wanted an alcoholic beverage or two. Kankri sat back on the sofa, fairly engrossed in his book. The scene was idyllically domestic.  
  
The following day was dramatically different.  
  
"I wont be gone long, Cronus" Kankri soothed sweetly, smoothing Cronus's hair carefully between his horns. Cronus pleaded with his eyes as there was really not much else he currently could do to communicate with Kankri. He lay spread out flat on his back, his wrists and ankles bound to the bed frame so tightly he couldn’t move an inch. The gag filled his mouth so completely that his teeth dug into it and his tongue was pushed right back. Worst of all, the chastity device was back on.  
  
Of course it had been anyway while he slept with Kankri, and removed while he showered, went through his ablutions, ate breakfast. When Kankri took him up to the room about mid evening, he didn’t object. He couldn’t do much to hide his erection when Kankri ordered him to strip, the room itself pretty much had this effect on him now by association. And as usual Kankri wasn’t impressed. Once bound down, the fantasy Cronus had been indulging of Kankri climbing astride him and sliding himself down onto his throbbing bulge was cut abruptly short.  
  
"I have no idea why you've gotten yourself into this state, I'll have to go and do something else for a while you compose yourself"  
  
True to his word, Kankri disappeared for thirty minutes or so, and Cronus started to doze off from boredom eventually. He came to abruptly when he felt straps being laid over his hips, and then gasped as something was slid into his nook, wiggled around a little, then withdrawn and smoothly slid into his rear end. Something not big enough to hurt much, but enough for him to know that it was there. The familiar shape of the plug belonging to the chastity device filled his nook next, and then all the straps were pulled tight, holding both plugs secure in his body.  
  
"I'm late getting out now because of that." Kankri tutted. "I hope you take some time to reflect on that amongst your other repentances while I'm out."  
  
"Out... Where are you going?" Cronus asked in a small voice.  
  
"Not far."  
  
"I don’t know if I feel safe... Being left like this, I cant get out, Kan, cant I come with you. Kan? Kan... Kmfff".  
  
Kankri pressed the gag piece into his mouth, and buckled it tight.  
  
"I wont be gone long."  
  
Then he lost his vision too as a black sash was drawn over his terrified eyes.  
  
_______  
  
"Mituna... Have you seen Cronus around today?"  
  
As expected, Mituna shrank away a little from the mention of that name. It was just as well that Kankri had been lucky enough to catch him alone.  
  
"C...Cronuths...no" he twitched.  
  
"Hmmm." Kankri looked thoughtful. "Where has he gotten to... Are you currently busy with anything Mituna, maybe you could help me look."  
  
"Cro...nuths... No, I don’t wanna."  
  
"That’s a shame, it would be a great help to me" Kankri coaxed gently.  
  
"Not Cronuths." Mituna growled a little.  
  
"Is he giving you a hard time again?"  
  
"Took my board" Mituna muttered, unconsciously clutching it closer to his chest. "Took it and... and..."  
  
"And what?"  
  
"Alwayths... Picking on me. And touching. Told him... I don’t like touching."  
  
"Is he not just being friendly when he touches you? A mere pat on the back, or a friendly embrace."  
  
"No, worthse. Really bad touching."  
  
"Maybe he didn’t realise it made you uncomfortable" Kankri responded innocently in Cronus' defence.  
  
"He knew it waths bad. Wasthn’t right. Wouldn’t let me go." Mituna was becoming agitated. Kankri felt a little bad inducing him to recall his bad experience. It was necessary though if he was to come to terms with what happened and be empowered to get over it. It was the right thing to do.  
  
"Mituna, what did he do to upset you?" Kankri needed it in Mituna's own words, to know in what way and how seriously it had affected him. Unknown to the poor yellowblood he knew exactly what had happened. He needed Mituna's interpretation, however skewed and confused it came out.  
  
"No. Cant tell."  
  
"You can tell me Mituna, I'm your friend," Kankri soothed.  
  
"Thath’s what... He sthaid too. And he’ths not my friend. Does bad thinghs." Mituna bit his lip, still clutching his board tightly.  
  
"Mituna, you know i wont hurt you." Kankri looked him steadily in the eye, through the bicoloured lenses of his helmet visor. "If you want to talk, we can go somewhere private. Or even if you don’t want to talk. You're safe with me."  
  
Mituna looked hesitant. Kankri kept his body language relaxed, open, carefully maintained the appropriate distance from Mituna so as to not unnerve him, seem too pushy.  
  
"Come have a grubloaf with me, its nearly lunchtime anyway?"  
  
That got his attention.  
  
"With sauce?"  
  
"Sure."  
  
_______  
  
"I'm here to help, Mituna, always remember that. Support and progression of our society as a race is both my passion and heartfelt duty." The sentiment was somewhat lost on Mituna, his attention was focused almost solely on the delicious meal Kankri was handing him.  
  
"And remember that you are always safe in this hive. That's important."  
  
Mituna nodded enthusiastically while sinking his long, prominent fang teeth into the loaf and messily dripping sauce down his chin.  
  
"Please enjoy the meal, and excuse me for just a brief moment. I need to go fetch our other lunch guest, I imagine he's fairly hungry by now."  
  
After a few minutes upstairs, Kankri lead Cronus in firmly by the collar. Mituna instantly stiffened and twitched with panic but Kankri waved a hand at him dismissively. He guided Cronus to the sofa and stood him beside it, moving onwards into the kitchen.  
  
"I'll fetch your lunch over, sit down Cronus."  
  
Mituna tensely watched him sink obediently to sit on the floor. Doing exactly what Kankri told him to do. Kankri brought a grubloaf over on a plate and sat himself on the sofa, next to Cronus on the floor. Balancing the plate on his lap, he first ran his fingers gently through the seatroll's mussed hair, then carefully unfastened the gag and drew it out of his mouth. He winced as he moved his stiff jaw.  
  
"It kinda smarts after the first hour of choking on that thing."  
  
"Hush Cronus. If you behave this lunchtime I may treat you later." Kankri caught him by hooking his fingers under his collar once more. "Up on the sofa, I'll feed you your lunch".  
  
"Blindfolded?"  
  
"Of course" Kankri said simply but firmly, not bothering to explain further.  
  
The taller troll clambered up onto the sofa beside Kankri and sat meekly waiting. Kankri tore the filled loaf up carefully into bite size chunks.  
  
"Whenever you are ready Cronus."  
  
He opened his mouth expectantly and Kankri fed him a prepared piece. He was obviously hungry enough not to object. Knowing the guy's perverse desires, Kankri wondered if he was actually going to start getting some sort of thrill out of this. It wasn’t possible to tell as he was both belted into the chastity device and also dressed in his jeans. Kankri had him put them on again before cuffing his wrists together and bringing him out of the Training Room, as he was starting to refer to it in his mind.  It wasn’t his intention to scare the crap out of Mituna, or even make him overly uncomfortable really. He more or less wanted to prove to him in the simplest way that the roguish creature who had brutally attacked him before was now under control at the very least, and even becoming somewhat tamed. Cronus leant in towards Kankri with his mouth open, supporting himself with his chained hands gripping the seat cushion, seeking more food. He was being very submissive. Either very hungry for food or hungry for a reward for good behaviour.  
  
He ate the single loaf quickly. Kankri brought him a glass of water and also helped him drink from that. He rinsed and dried the gag, stroked Cronus while muttering low, soothing reassurances, and pressed it gently back into his unresisting mouth again. Mituna just continued to watch with his mouth open, his fingers still gripping the half eaten loaf suspended just above the trembling plate balanced in his lap.  
  
"You can rest a while Cronus" he cooed, pressing him back a little to recline into the sofa back, relaxed, compliant. Obedient.  
  
"Cronuthhs...why iths he here..." Mituna spluttered, dropping the loaf back onto the plate, forgotten in his horror.  
  
The effect of that voice on Cronus was instantaneous. He was sat up straight in a heartbeat, moving his head sharply back and forth. He couldn’t see anything through the sash across his eyes but he was certainly straining his hearing for confirmation.  
  
"Cronus, be still" Kankri warned sternly. "Mituna, I apologise for withholding the fact that I had invited Cronus around but I rather hoped this way I could settle some of these uncertainties you have expressed about his conduct recently. As you can see, he has been more than willing to come to me himself for guidance in adjusting his behaviour and some very good, rapid progress has been made."  
  
"I don'th get it.." Mituna looked as confused as he was unnerved.  
  
"His belief that he could be a danger to others in some way, had to be addressed, and I believe that I am the best situated to offer him correctional guidance." Kankri papped Cronus comfortingly as he spoke, as he was still sat straight up and tense on the sofa.  
  
"Cronuths is... Bad." The violet blood slumped a little with shame at the accusation, true and deserved as it was.  
  
"I'm teaching him not be. You don't need to be afraid of him anymore Mituna."  
  
"He can'th keep hith sthtupid bulge to himthself". Cronus tried to vocalise something in response but he couldn’t get the words past the gag.  
  
"Is that the nature of the harassment he has been directing toward you then?" Kankri asked softly.  
  
"He thaid... Not to tell" Mituna whimpered. Kankri made a sympathetic noise.  
  
"I’m going to presume this happened quite recently?"  
  
Mituna nodded.  
  
"He approached me not long after I believe. Distraught by some misdemeanour that he wouldn’t reveal, but desperate for punishment for that sin. And eager to be corrected so that he couldn’t allow the same thing to happen again. To the one he wronged, or anyone else he values amongst his friends."  
  
Kankri could see Mituna trying to process the information while eyeing Cronus warily. He was still behaving very well... he could have actually raised his cuffed wrists enough to tear the blindfold off, or try to unbuckle the gag. Instead he was still bowed over, hanging his head in the very image of intense shame.  
  
"D... Doeths thiths make you two pale now?"  
  
"No Mituna... Its not that kind of connection. Less affection, more of a social duty. I do not wish to take any quadrantmates." Kankri's tone was soft, so soothing, that Mituna actually sat back in his seat again, and somewhat absently retrieved his grubloaf. He still stared at his restrained tormentor as he took a hesitant bite.  
  
"Cronus, sit back now" Kankri ordered firmly as the seatroll mumbled again through the gag, and eventually having to enforce his order by pulling back firmly on the collar. "Show Mituna that you can be behave appropriately around others."  
  
"I... Have to go... thsee Latula..." Mituna finished his food quietly and still somewhat apprehensively. "Going tskating."  
  
"You are getting so much better" Kankri said pleasantly "Just be careful not to hurt yourself in the process. Work your way up to those harder stunts."  
  
Kankri left Cronus sat dejectedly on the sofa to escort Mituna out.  
  
"You don't need to worry about Cronus anymore, you are perfectly safe even when I'm not with him. If you have any problems or need to talk... Just come to me. I cant stop you from telling Latula and Kurloz but I can vouch for Cronus's true repentance over this issue. He never truly meant you any harm."  
  
"S...sorry."  
  
"Mituna, don’t apologise, none of this is a direct consequence of anything you have done. Its been more... misread intentions. Don’t feel sorry or guilty and above all don’t linger on it." He handed him the skateboard that he had propped just inside the door.   
"  
Take care".

  



	7. Separation

Cronus's gaze was hard when Kankri drew away the blindfold.  
  
"I might be the worst kind of scoundrel but I could never lie with your kind of pokerface." Cronus needled him, wiping his lips after being freed from the gag.  
  
"I think my telling put you in a far more commendable light than how it actually played out. You nobly owning up to your transgressions and seeking help to protect your friends and not cowering in your hive hoping and praying not to be found out."  
  
"You could have warned me. You could have given me the option to say something, fucking keeping me in the dark, gagging me..."  
  
"I’m fairly sure you once said that actions were a more effective method of communicating a concept to Mituna. What better way to show him that you were under control and no further threat to him?"  
  
"If it comes out to the others that you're doin weird shit like that to me..."  
  
"If that detail comes out then most likely the whole story will come out and I think, you will still be the one in a less favourable light." Kankri retorted sternly.  
  
Cronus fell silent, his face a true vision of backed-into-a-corner dismay. Then his brows drew down in frustrated anger.  
  
"I want out, I'm going home."  
  
"Cronus don’t make me have to reprimand you."  
  
"No, I'm not fucking around this time. I want to go back to my own hive." he growled.  
  
Kankri held the annoyed glare of the larger, stronger troll evenly despite his concerned realisation that he had neither restraint, adequate reasoning or even an emergency shot of sopor to protect himself from Cronus if this argument turned physically violent. Although it pained him to concede defeat... He opted to back down. This time.  
  
"If that's what is needed to help you calm yourself and see my reasoning... I will allow it."  
  
"Damn right."  
  
"Drop your trousers then" Kankri ordered sourly, producing the key to the chastity belt.  He noticed how Cronus's gills were even flaring open a little in time with his harsh, angry breathing, as he leant in close to unfasten the lock and loosen the straps. Cronus unbuckled the collar from his neck himself then pulled the straps from his hips, and dropped both items carelessly on the floor. He pulled his shirt on roughly enough to rip it slightly when the material snagged on the tip of one of his horns.  
  
Kankri followed him to the door, but neither exchanged any further words as they parted ways.  
  
\-----  
  
Kankri watched him storm away impassively. He was just feeling humiliated, he would soon see that it was the right course to take. This thing between him and Mituna couldn’t have been left to fester into something even more unpleasant than the act which sparked the awkward animosity. He closed the door quietly and returned to the loungeblock.  
  
He picked up the chastity device from where it had been left on the floor, ran a sink of hot water with a dash of mild detergent and dropped it in. He gathered together the ingredients for a smoothie and caught himself almost calling out to Cronus to ask if he wanted anything. He pressed his lips together in mild dismay, that such an action had come to him so instinctively. Unnerved at the feeling like he had been unexpectedly derailed from his familiar routine of solitude, when he had been alone practically from the day he was hatched. Why should sharing a hive with another troll for barely two weeks change any of his lifelong habits? He poured out the drink and sank back into the sofa, taking up his current book.  
  
He gave up after an hour or so of reading the same few passages without any of it really being absorbed into his thinkpan. Not being able to focus was immensely irritating. With a protracted sigh he put the book aside on the table, next to another book. It was one of Cronus's books. Kankri had actually been surprised that he even had the attention span to sit down and read. God knows what it was he actually read though. He picked up the small book out of curiosity.  
  
Trashy romance. Okay, now it made complete sense. Kankri flipped it open and idly scanned a few lines, his eyes widening comically at the explicitness of the particular scene he had stumbled across at random. No wonder Cronus acted so completely inappropriately at times if this was the sort of example he was following. Kankri somehow found himself powerless to resist reading a little further, it was like some kind of obscene trainwreck he couldn’t tear his eyes away from.  
  
Okay, this was just becoming grossly indecent. Even in a fictional fantasy setting... a Matesprit pairing, bringing another participant into their copulation ritual... One of the pairing's moirail at that! It was no wonder the structure of society was fast going down the gaper. The vilest quadrant corruption... and... the things they were doing together! How did this ever even come to print? Kankri himself would have died of shame buying or requesting delivery of this filth, he could feel his cheeks burning hotly as he even imagined it. Unfortunately it wasn’t the only part of him that had become warmed by exposure to such perversity.  
  
He let out a shallow whimper of horror as he gingerly touched the tented crotch of his pants. This should not be arousing, this was only supposed to be arousing to degenerates and... idiots with nothing more constructive or benefiting to society to do. It should be of no consequence to someone of his intelligence, moral standing, strength of character.  
  
He squeezed his throbbing bulge through the fabric and moaned. Fuck... It was excessively hot and hard... was it even likely to retract anytime soon if he maybe just... tried to forget about it and did something else. He glanced around uncomfortably. Well, at least it was late, according to the wall clock. He put the book back on the side but resolved himself to make Cronus dispose of it when he came back, it was hardly conducive to Kankri's attempts to discipline him into having more respect for his peers and more tact in making quadrant solicitations if all his head was clouded with was pure lust.  
  
He rinsed and dried the chastity belt, and then rinsed out his drinking glass. He went to the ablution block, washed himself and even managed to pee despite his continuing arousal making it little tricky to go. He slipped naked into the sopor still sporting the ridiculous erection. His mind was still creeping unbidden back to the words in that book… it was making it just impossible to merely will it away as he usually would.  
  
The male in the middle of the tryst... he had been bulge deep in his female Matesprit, while her moirail had been in turn deeply penetrating him. How was that even possible... to be pailing two trolls at that same time? He tried to picture the exact physical mechanics.  
  
Which was a mistake because all too clearly he found himself suddenly picturing Cronus as the male moirail, Latula as the female... and himself in the middle. His bulge actually twitched and throbbed even harder, and he could feel his receptive organ down between his legs starting to get in on the twisted fantasy too. If he weren’t already immersed in the wetness of the slime he was pretty sure he would be able to feel the dampness gathering down there. That didn’t tend to happen to him so often, his usually pedestrian sleep arousals he generally only felt in his bulge. Even pailing with Cronus only roused his bulge. But this... This really felt like a full on mating heat. He curled in on himself against the rounded lower curve of the recuperacoon, starting to feel almost brought to tears by his helplessness. If Cronus was here, he supposed could have pailed him to make the heat go away.  
  
No no no... Pailing Cronus isn’t a gratuitous activity... it’s part of his correctional conditioning and maybe on your part... just a little objective physical experimentation that might benefit your own social theorising. Not about satisfying your own base desires. You never gave into them before and you wont give into them now damn it!  
  
Kankri  just couldn’t find the inner strength to will himself to sleep. He thought briefly about the soporific medications and whether injecting himself with a shot would help him relax. When his eyes crept open again, the dim light did nothing to disguise the dark streaks permeating the sopor that were leaking copiously from his bulge, and probably his nook too. This was definitely akin to the state Cronus got himself into when Kankri punished him, so disgustingly needy that he didn’t have a definite giving or taking role in mind, his body made itself ready to accept either. Maybe there was still so much Kankri just didn’t know about his own biology, so caught up as he always was in higher matters.  
  
He didn’t even try to suppress the wretched whimper than crawled up his throat as his fingers brushed over his straining bulge, and then tightened around it. This couldn’t go on all night or beyond... he was going to have to... get himself off, as Cronus had vulgarly described the act.  
  
He uncurled himself and shifted to recline on his back, his chin just about resting in the slime surrounding him, only the peaks of his pale knees also breaking the slick green surface as he drew up and spread his legs a little. He had kinda done this for Cronus the day previously and had managed to make him come, so he cant have done so badly. He gripped his bulge through the slime, and started to stroke it firmly, up and down the whole length. Fuck... That felt ridiculously good. He bit his lip to stifle his fluttery gasps as he sped up a little. If he treated this more like an experiment, maybe he wouldn’t feel so disgusted that he was lying in his recuperacoon, playing with himself.  
  
But as the physical pleasure grew he found himself beginning to fantasize despite his initial resolve to just try and get rid of his arousal in a quick and mechanical fashion. It was that stupid scene from that stupid book, just... how was he so hyper aroused by that perverse filth?  
  
He closed his eyes and pumped his hips upwards into his slick fist, mimicking the act of fucking another body which he now couldn’t help but keep seeing in his mind's eye as the curvaceous form of Latula.  
  
Once upon a time, a mere few sweeps ago, he had been so flushed for her. But unlike his peers, who were starting to act on their new caliginous or concupiscent leanings, Kankri just felt so uncomfortable trying to make sense of them that he retreated further into his studies, imposing solitude on himself. Latula was pretty and popular, and he thought that he had so little chance of earning her returned affections that he gave up before he even gave himself leave to really try.  Sometimes he wondered if he should have tried. But she had fairly quickly chosen the equally cool and popular Mituna Captor for her Matesprit and he had to admit that they were a good match. Their bond remained as solid as ever even after Mituna's awful accident. Kankri fell to studying social circles rather than engaging in them. Eventually, on never really connecting or flushing for anyone else in the same way, he stopped considering how to fill his quadrants. He declared himself celibate and denied his biological urges. His work was more important than such things. He didn’t want to hear about them. They became offensive to him.  
  
Latula was a truly beautiful young adult female now. The fingers of his other hand cautiously teased the sensitive entrance of his virgin nook without daring to actually venture inside that untried place. But the image of the three trolls concupiscent joined together would not leave him be, and with a potent mix of dismay and desire, he imagined Cronus's thick, purple slicked bulge being driven roughly inside him while he himself was pressed close to Latula's soft skin, filling her with his slurry as he was hotly filled too.  
  
He cried out shrilly, the sound bouncing back at him from all directions within the rounded walls of the recuperacoon as he gripped his bulge tight, his genetic material fountaining out with a force and volume the like of which he had never experienced before. It pulsed in his grip as his muscles contracted intensely and heat surged through him, leaving him light-headed, panting and completely drained.  
  
It was literally minutes before he fully regained his senses, lying in a sensory overload stupor in the warm and now somewhat tainted slime. There really had been quite a lot come out of him. If he could handle his shame and disgust at sleeping in the mess tonight, he would have to run the slime filtration system first thing the following evening to sort it out before there was the very slight possibility of anyone seeing it.  
  
But he was drifting into a very deep and sated sleep before he could even find a good reason for anyone at all to be looking for him the next day.  
  
  



	8. Reconcile

Unusually for him, he slept in longer than he usually did. But he woke up feeling relaxed and rested. At least until he remembered what he had done the night before.  
  
Kankri tensed, recalling the state of his sopor slime and how it had come to be soiled. He climbed out briskly, wrapping a towel around himself and immediately dragging the filtration system out of the wardrobe. He submerged the hoses in the slime and started the cleaning cycle off, doubling the standard full clean time just to be sure.  
  
He drew a hot bath and sat in it, staring unseeingly at the taps. He could clean himself and his recuperacoon as much as he wanted but it wouldn’t erase the disgust he felt at himself for doing what he did, and the degenerate fantasy he had done it to. He was becoming increasingly and impotently irritated at Cronus for leaving such a book around for him to find. It troubled him that Cronus read literature like that. Even for a violet blood with depraved and oversexed tendencies. He needed to confront him about it. But of course, he wasn’t around, he'd returned to his hive in a huff.  
  
He'd need to be completely calm and reasonable though, no upset or accusatory tone. There was no need to blow this incident out of proportion. And most of all, he needed to forget the nature of that content, he scowled to himself as his bulge stirred a little.  
  
Dressed, he sat at the downstairs table trying the text book from the previous night again, taking notes to help himself concentrate. He had marginally more success. But he still found himself glancing at the time and wondering what Cronus was currently doing.  
  
Would it look like a sign of weakness if he went to his hive to check on him...  
  
No, of course not, this was about Cronus and his problem with Mituna. It had nothing to do with how things were going between him and Cronus. There was no 'him and Cronus'.  
  
***  
  
He waved pleasantly to Rufioh and Horuss as he passed them, sat together under an apple tree. Leant shoulder to shoulder, Horuss eating an apple from the tree, Rufioh engrossed in stringing together a garland from the small flowers dotting the grass around them, looking relaxed and contented, enjoying the warm evening. They waved back, grinning.  
  
They made a good match.  
  
Kankri picked his way carefully through the overgrown lawnring. He was about to rap loudly on the door, but then on an inner hunch, he tried the door handle and it simply swung open.  
  
Still as cluttered as ever in there, if Cronus was still annoyed at him when he got back in he could have at least put that restless energy into cleaning up a little. He'd even made it worse since Kankri had last been round, not bothering to clean up the packets and cans he must have consumed the evening before.  
  
"Cronus?" He called softly, but he didn’t appear from any of the lower floor rooms. He'd have to venture upstairs.  
  
He poked his head around the doorframe of the room that looked most likely to be a respitblock. Unlike Kankri's spartan and tidy room, this one was  riot of clutter. Posters spread across the walls of musicians, movie stars, and awful messy graffiti style artwork. Papers, magazines and gamegrubs strewn across the desk. Overflowing wastepaper basket. Liquor cans and soda bottles dotted around. And a recuperacoon, which Kankri approached cautiously.  
  
There he was, sprawled ungracefully in the sopor. Still wearing the shirt from the night before and his shorts, like he'd only made a token attempt to get ready to sleep. There was even a liquor can floating in the slime beside him. If Kankri could see the amused smile of something nearing a piteous kind of affection softening his usual stony gaze he would probably have been deeply unnerved by it. But then he consciously made sure his face was suitably unamused before he called out again.  
  
"Cronus".  
  
His eyes opened slowly, blearily, and he turned his head to the side, to finally focus on Kankri peering in at him. Then he sat up suddenly, a guilty look spreading across his face.  
  
"Hey... Kankri. What are you doing here... Man, I would have done something about this mess..."  
  
"It is in a pretty impressive state" Kankri agreed, with more than a hint of sarcasm. Cronus plucked the floating can out of the slime and held it sheepishly.  
  
"My conscience wouldn’t let me leave things as they were after yesterday, I thought I'd better make sure you weren’t doing anything foolish over here."  
  
"If you define foolish as having maybe one too many cans and falling asleep still clothed... And waking up with a sorta fuzzy head..."  
  
"Well at least that’s not causing discomfort to anyone but yourself" Kankri tutted, but not aggressively. "Were you planning to get up anytime soon."  
  
"Do I really have a choice seein' as you're here now."  
  
Kankri didn’t bother to even justify that question with an answer. Sighing under Kankri's disapproving gaze, he heaved himself sluggishly up out of the warm cosy slime.  
  
\----  
Kankri had taken to tidying up his loungeblock while he was washing and dressing. Two neatly tied off bags of rubbish sat by the door ready to go into the outside collection receptacle.  
  
"Ugh... Well I can tell you now that I feel almost 100% no better for that." Cronus wandered to the thermal hull, took a bottle of most likely flat soda and swigged from it without even trying to find a glass to pour it into. Kankri's eyebrow twitched as he watched him.  
  
"Fresh air. You should go for a walk."  
  
"Not happening. I don’t even know who I’m going to run into or even what they might know about me now. Staying put." Cronus's voice took on the same stubborn tone from before staging his walkout. He plonked himself obstinately down in an armchair.  
  
"You don’t want the possibility of encountering Mituna." Kankri stated bluntly.  
  
"Well... Anyone really. I mean how likely was he to start telling the others about this? How are they gonna understand what the heck is going in? In fact while we're on the subject can you even explain to me what's going on?"  
  
Kankri didn’t want to be having this discussion in Cronus's hive. He didn’t like being away from his secure hive, his... educational equipment. His sedatives.

  
"Cronus, just be quiet and come with me. I'm not done with you yet."  
  
"Yeah, well... I feel about done at this point. Like the situation couldn't get any worse." Cronus looked away from Kankri, gazing through the window to the dim night beyond.  
  
"Sometimes things have to get worse before they get better. But when you think about it, Mituna was more likely to consult someone before I intervened. I believe Mituna will trust my advice. Now... come and walk with me."  
  
Cronus still looked annoyed but Kankri could sense that he was winning him over. There was only so much time he could hide away in his hive without eventually having to get out and face encountering the other trolls.  
  
"Come on." Kankri prompted. Cronus sighed deeply, but levered himself out of the armchair all the same.  
  
\-----  
  
"I suppose you wanna try and talk me into coming back to yours"  
  
"No, not particularly." Kankri said airily. Cronus felt acutely disappointed by the response. He sorta hoped that Kankri would admit to missing him, as in missing his company as opposed to missing someone to lecture. He fell silent, hoping his feelings weren’t obvious.  
  
"No... This is about clearing your mind. Relaxing." Kankri said quietly. "I personally love to walk these woods when I need to clear my mind, to allow myself to... go blank, and just be one with the flora and fauna around me. Its like a kind of meditation. Just myself and nature. Open, quiet space. . I think you'll find more peace there than at the bottom of a liquor can."  
  
Cronus automatically thought of the Mituna incident having taken place in the woodland area and winced inwardly.  
  
"We'll go deeper, to a clearing I like that I don’t believe the others know about, I’ve certainly never been disturbed there before. Its a bit of a walk but I assure you it is worth it."  
  
"Y-yeah, sure."  
  
***  
  
"You know the way back right, I’ve never gone this far in before..." Cronus looked around uneasily, not having the first clue how to get back already.  
  
"I know the route well."  
  
Then unexpectedly, they came into a small but open area, surrounded by thick, luscious foliage but lacking the overhead reach of any tree branches, allowing the pale moonlight to stream down unimpeded and light up the clearing in its silvery glow.  
  
"Woah..." Cronus muttered quietly. "That is kinda cool."  
  
"I don’t believe any of the others know about it, I never see any evidence that anyone ever comes this far except for myself" Kankri sat himself down carefully by the large stump of a  tree that had obviously once closed off the gap in the canopy above. He tilted his head back and closed his eyes, letting out a deep sigh as he propped himself against the dead trunk.  
  
"How do you feel now?" he enquired.  
  
"A little bit better." Cronus sat down in the grass just in front of Kankri.  
  
"Good." Then after a moment he made an unexpected offer. "You can... Rest your head in my lap... If you want."  
  
"You sure?" Cronus looked momentarily surprised. An open show of physical contact... Kankri must really be pretty confident in their privacy. Kankri nodded without even opening his eyes.  
  
And so Cronus found himself shifting backwards through the grass to cautiously lay his head back against Kankri's legs, being careful not to accidentally jam one of his backwards pointing horns into him anywhere. Kankri touched his shoulder lightly, comfortingly. It was probably the most pale moment they had had between them since the arrangement was started, the arrangement which mostly seemed to vacillate between something like red and black more frequently than anything else. Kankri had even sort of tried his hand at mediating between him and Mituna. It was confusing as hell, there was obviously a good reason for keeping different acquaintances in different quadrants and this was it. At least everyone knew exactly where they stood.  
  
The wind rustling gently through the leaves was so soothing. Kankri's head was tipped back against the tree stump, his lips slightly parted as he dozed, Cronus also breathing deeply and evenly where he lay. It was very peaceful. He felt himself starting to drift off into a light slumber too.  
  
***  
  
Kankri came to later with a bit of a twitch. He hadn't actually intended to fall asleep, hadn't  thought he was tired enough to do so. The clearing was still as peaceful as before, however the moon had made swift progress across the sky. They probably shouldn’t stay outside too much longer. Kankri brought his head back forward, moistened his dry lips with his tongue. Cronus was still asleep.  
  
Kankri gazed down at him as he slept. He wasn't a bad looking troll by any stretch of the imagination, so it probably wasn’t anything physical doing him the injustice when it came to trying to strike up a relationship with other trolls, he just tried too hard. It maybe made him in turns seem too desperate, needy, or high maintenance and it put others off him. Of course the whole wanting and pretending to be human thing was weird too although Kankri was about the only one to retain sensitivity toward him on that subject. For a sea dweller he was actually remarkably amicable, Kankri had come to find. Cronus shifted and moved his head a little in his sleep. The lower curve of one of his horns was now pressing against his inner thigh right by his crotch. The unintentional contact sent an odd chill up Kankri's spine.  
  
The harder he bit his lip and tried not to wreck this nice arrangement with inappropriateness, the more he felt his bulge begin to swell. He had to will this away, if Cronus noticed then it would cast a very hypocritical light on the reprimanding he needed to issue to him later over that perverse reading material.  
  
"Kannn..." He whispered in a soft sleep sigh that sent a fresh surge of warmth through Kankri's already heated veins. Oh God what was he dreaming about... He felt his cheeks flush as he unfortunately let his imagination stray to some potential options, and that did it. He felt the uncomfortable sensation of his bulge fully unsheathing in the unforgivingly tight confines of his pants.  
  
Ugh, this was all his own fault, this is where his curiosity about trying a few sexual acts had gotten him. Satisfying that curiosity had been too pleasurable and this was his body rebelling against his stoic self control, piqued and ready for more.  
  
'The whole point is to steer Cronus away from his bad habits, not start developing them yourself' Kankri fumed impotently to himself inside his head as sheer will power alone wasn't getting his bulge back in check. Then Cronus shifted his head ever so slightly again, and pressed his nearest horn directly into Kankri's swollen crotch.  
There was no holding back the groan that the sensation forced from his lungs. It was jarring enough in the silent clearing to wake Cronus up with a start.  
  
"Kan? Kan... Are you alright?".  
  
"Yes, fine, no problem" Kankri stuttered quickly.  
  
Cronus opened his eyes fully, and gazed up rather intensely at Kankri from where he lay.  
  
"You sure? You look kinda flushed, are you not feeling so good?"  
  
"It's fine, you just poked me with a horn."  
  
"Huh, oh... Sorry..." Cronus shifted around to get up, and Kankri was just a little too slow to get his own position shifted to something better suited to concealing his bulge. Unfortunately, Cronus didn't miss a thing.  
  
"Kankri... you packin heat?" He chuckled "is that really why you're being so touchy?"  
  
"Shut up" Kankri snapped out before he could check his response.  
  
"Don't get all bent out of shape about it, no ones gonna see. Gettin hard while you sleep isn't unusual you know, chill out".  
  
"It's unusual for me. Anyway, it'll go away soon."  
  
"Well that's no fun." Cronus pretend pouted. "Why... don't you let me take care of it?"  
  
Kankri's face was a picture of pure mortification, and Cronus was actually enjoying being the one doing the teasing and mocking for a change.  
  
"How about it?" He just couldn't resist a sly wink as he repeated his proposal.  
  
"How about we don't ruin the pure sanctity of this place with such acts. What is your obsession with performing acts of indecency in a public place?" Kankri fumed, his cheeks so flushed they were very clearly betraying his blood hue.  
  
"You aren’t gonna needle me with the Mituna thing this time, I fully accept that was wrong but I don't see what's the deal with being intimate in the outdoors. Come on, this is hardly a public spot, you said yourself that no-one comes here that you know of".  
  
"Absolutely not"  
  
"You gonna stay sat here until the sun comes up, waiting for it to go away so no one else notices? Getting yourself fried in the name of modesty?"  
  
Kankri pressed his lips together sullenly.  
  
"Order me to do it then, don't think I haven’t noticed that little kink you got for being in control?" Cronus continued, refusing to give in.  
  
"You're being ridiculous." He didn't sound as indignant as before, he was obviously losing the will to argue. Cronus flipped himself over onto his front in the grass and started unfastening Kankri's pants, watching with amusement as the flustered troll raised his hands as if to push him away but instead they just hovered hesitantly in front of him. He lowered them in defeat as Cronus freed his still very much aroused bulge and squeezed it firmly and teasingly. But he twitched with apprehension rather than pleasure when Cronus moved his face closer, his tongue snaking from between those terrifying rows of neat, sharp teeth to tease the tip.  
  
"D... Don't do that with your mouth... It's... It's... Unhygienic..."  
  
"There's nothing wrong with it and I won't hurt you, just chill out" the sea troll whispered softly. He pressed his lips against Kankri's organ, shielding his teeth carefully and nuzzling gently. Kankri sagged a little against three tree trunk, watching.  
  
"Wh... What are you doing..."  
  
"Teasing... Just a little. Making you want me to do more than just this."  
  
"Cronus just get on with it." the smaller troll squirmed, still unsure about the sensation of a hot, wet tongue wrapping around his length and trying to draw it in past that toothy grin.  
  
"As you command.." he breathed, and Kankri tensed, digging his fingers deeply into the soft dirt of the woodland floor as Cronus's mouth enveloped him deeply.  
  
It was sorta warm and wet like... Like pailing the normal, proper way, but the movements of his tongue, teasing the tip and the slightly more sensitive underside of his bulge, and the pulling, sucking sensation. It was weird and made his legs feel like jelly, his spread legs since Cronus had edged his way in-between them and was now also snaking his hands under his trembling thighs and clutching at his buttocks as he swallowed him deeper. Did he even have a gag reflex? How was he breathing... Oh wait, gills. Kinda cheating but... So very intense. All he could do was sit limply and murmur low under his breath at the feeling, then suddenly tensing and tilting his body just a little forwards and upwards at Cronus as the other troll had craftily started massaging a thumb over the swollen entrance to his nook through the fabric of his trousers.  
  
"Don’t touch... there" he panted even as the way he twitched his hips brought him closer to the press of his thumb, and closer he suspected to releasing his load. "B...back off, I... Might pail..."  
  
Cronus only fixed him with a steady stare, and took his bulge deeper, moving his lips against him faster. When Kankri tensed, grabbed him by his horns and tried to push him back he only held on closer and tighter as Kankri hitched and wailed and gushed his bright red fluid helplessly down the other's seemingly eagerly working throat.  
  
***  
"Well I hope you're pleased with yourself now"  
  
Cronus watched, grinning inanely, as Kankri stood fussing over straightening himself out, obsessively checking his pants were still clean and fully fastened while repeatedly and nervously pulling his sweater hem down and running an obviously shaky hand through his hair.  
  
"Yeah, I am. Watching you fuss around there is priceless.".  
  
"That was vile... You didn't have to go quite that far."  
  
"I don’t see why you're making such a big deal of it." Cronus rolled over onto his back again in the grass and stretched contentedly. Kankri barely resisted the urge to march over and kick him until he shut up and wiped the smug look off of his face. Instead he counted down from ten in his head and forced himself to stop fretting. It was done now and thank God there hadn’t been incriminating mess left on anything. He still couldn’t quite get over Cronus choosing to swallow. The thought of trying to do the same thing himself made the bile rise in his own throat.  
  
"Just get up and stop trying to put grass stains on your shirt like an overgrown wriggler." Kankri turned on his heel and started away into the trees so briskly that Cronus had to get quickly back to his feet and jog to catch up so as not to get left behind and become lost. After quite a while of moving through the foliage in silence he was relieved to see that they had entered more familiar surroundings. Kankri's navigation was impressive, he would have been wandering around in circles for hours.  
  
"What now Chief? I’m gettin’ hungry."  
  
"Don't call me stupid things. I'm returning to my hive to eat and you can join me if you wish."  
  
Goddamn was he still in a mood? He'd only blown the guy and yet he was acting as though he'd done something like purposely mistake his recuperacoon for a load gaper. Well... Kankri wasn’t great company when annoyed so maybe it was time to cut the taunting and play meek for a while.  
  
"I'd like that, I don’t have much fresh stuff in at my place, what with being here quite a bit... Plus you cook way better than I do."  
  
Kankri glanced at him, then nodded, possibly at least somewhat appeased by the show of submission. Not being in full control definitely put him on edge, he’d been very reluctant to let Cronus lead any physical activity between them.  
  
"Come on then."  
  
Relieved by the softer tone of his response, Cronus followed.  
  
*****


End file.
